Transformation of the electronic structure of Cu into Cu2O in the adsorption of oxygen

Systematic photoelectron-spectroscopy studies of the oxygen adsorption on a polycrystalline copper in a nide range of oxygen exposures allowed us to trace the step-by-step transformation of the electronic structure of pure Cu into the electronic structure of Cu2O. With the use of the density-of-states calculations implemented by the full-potential linear muffin-tin-orbital method, the interpretation of a number of features in the photoelectron spectra and their behavior with the increase of oxygen exposure was carried out. It was also shown that copper-surface oxidation proceeds in three main steps.