The chemistry of the gadolinium-nickel interface

Gadolinium overlayers on Ni(111) have been studied by angle resolved photoemission, angle resolved AES, LEED, and RHEEB. We have observed pronounced interdiffusion of nickel with the gadolinium overlayer at temperatures as low as 150 K. This is in marked contrast with gadolinium overlayers on Cu(108) where substantial interdiffusion is not observed until 360 K, but is consistent with studies of ytterbium on nickel. [A. Nilsson, B Eriksson, N. Martenssom, J. N. Andersen, and J. Onsgaard, Phys. Rev. B 38,10357, ( 1988) and I. Chorkendorff, K. Onsgaard, J. Schmidt-May and R. Nyholm, Surf. Sci. 160, 587, (1985) .] There is a strong interfacial heat of interaction observed with gadolinium on both copper and nickel resulting in pronounced binding energy shifts observed in photoemission. An extremely small kinetic barrier to rare earth diffusion through nickel has been measured. The results are compared to transition metal overlayers on transition metal substrates

Thermochemistry of the gadolinium-copper interface

We have characterized the thermochemistry of the gadolinium-copper interface using valence-band photoemission. We find that the copper substrate binds strongly with the gadolinium overlayer, based upon valence-band binding-energy shifts that occur with increasing gadolinium coverages on Cu(100). The net potential for copper at the interface is 3.82 eV/atom which is some 0.51 eV/atom greater than the heat of sublimation for copper. The strong bonds formed between copper and gadolinium provide a thermochemical driving force for copper gadolinium-alloy formation. We observed a surface-to-bulk core-level shift for gadolinium of 0.3–0.4 eV. We also observed a Cu 3d binding-energy increase of 0.73 eV with increasing coverage

The chemistry of the gadolinium-nickel interface

Gadolinium overlayers on Ni(111) have been studied by angle resolved photoemission, angle resolved AES, LEED, and RHEEB. We have observed pronounced interdiffusion of nickel with the gadolinium overlayer at temperatures as low as 150 K. This is in marked contrast with gadolinium overlayers on Cu(108) where substantial interdiffusion is not observed until 360 K, but is consistent with studies of ytterbium on nickel. [A. Nilsson, B Eriksson, N. Martenssom, J. N. Andersen, and J. Onsgaard, Phys. Rev. B 38,10357, ( 1988) and I. Chorkendorff, K. Onsgaard, J. Schmidt-May and R. Nyholm, Surf. Sci. 160, 587, (1985) .] There is a strong interfacial heat of interaction observed with gadolinium on both copper and nickel resulting in pronounced binding energy shifts observed in photoemission. An extremely small kinetic barrier to rare earth diffusion through nickel has been measured. The results are compared to transition metal overlayers on transition metal substrates

Thermochemistry of the gadolinium-copper interface

We have characterized the thermochemistry of the gadolinium-copper interface using valence-band photoemission. We find that the copper substrate binds strongly with the gadolinium overlayer, based upon valence-band binding-energy shifts that occur with increasing gadolinium coverages on Cu(100). The net potential for copper at the interface is 3.82 eV/atom which is some 0.51 eV/atom greater than the heat of sublimation for copper. The strong bonds formed between copper and gadolinium provide a thermochemical driving force for copper gadolinium-alloy formation. We observed a surface-to-bulk core-level shift for gadolinium of 0.3–0.4 eV. We also observed a Cu 3d binding-energy increase of 0.73 eV with increasing coverage

Probing the metal-nonmetal transition in thin metal overlayers using resonant photoemission

We have studied one and two monolayers of barium on Ni(111) and of mercury on Cu(100). Using resonant photoemission, we have found core excited electrons become delocalized with increasing barium coverage. Similarly, upon formation of the mercury bilayer (as determined by low-energy electron diffraction and by atom-beam scattering), there is a substantial increase in the screening of the photohole. A transition of the electronic structure akin to a metal-nonmetal (metal-insulator) transition is apparent in these final-state effects. The band structure for Hg is similar to the band structure expected for a free-standing film with a free-electron sd band. The delocalization of the core excited electrons resembles the exciton unbinding that occurs at the metal-nonmetal Mott transition

Magnetic ordering of thin Gd overlayers

1–6-monolayer-thick films of Gd have been studied with use of synchrotron-radiation photoemission. A method is described that utilizes the linear light polarization to obtain information about the overlayer magnetization. The method is complementary to electron-spin-polarization techniques. The thinner Gd overlayers exhibit a local magnetization component along the surface normal that decreases for thicker overlayers. The Gd films exhibit a 5d exchange splitting that changes from approximately 1.1 to 0.6 eV as the overlayer thickness increases