Reflectance difference spectroscopy of water on Cu(110)

The adsorption of H2O on Cu(110) was probed by means of reflectance difference spectroscopy (RDS) in the energy range between 1.5 and 9.3 eV and by scanning tunneling microscopy (STM). The adsorption of water on the pristine Cu(110) substrate mainly induces changes in the Cu surface state related optical transitions. Furthermore, the H2O adsorbate modifies the Cu bulk transitions. In particular, our investigations demonstrate that the coverage-dependent phase transition from 1D pentamer chains to a (7 × 8) superstructure can be monitored by means of RDS. In the vacuum-UV range, new RD features assigned to Cu bulk transitions were detected. Adsorption on the metal surface strongly modifies or quenches the H2O HOMO–LUMO transition, whereby a distinct RD feature of the water molecules themselves in the vacuum-UV range is absent.