Ordering of nitrogen molecules on the nanostructured Cu(1 1 0)/Cu(1 1 0)–(2×1)O stripe phase

The influence of the confinement induced by the finite width of the Cu and CuO domains on the Cu(1 1 0)/Cu(1 1 0)–(2×1)O stripe phase on the structure of the N2 monolayer was investigated using both, He atom diffraction and interaction potential calculations. Above large size domains of Cu or CuO, the 4113 pinwheel structure and the (4×3) phase already observed for the homogeneous Cu(1 1 0) and Cu(1 1 0)–(2×1)O substrates are recovered. If the width of one or the other domain type decreases, confinement effects lead to the progressive disappearance of the superstructure diffraction peaks tied to these ordered structures. Calculations show that the pinwheel structure is replaced by a hexagonal incommensurate phase on the Cu stripes whereas the (4×3) phase is only slightly disturbed even on small CuO stripes.