Growth and thermal stability of ultra-thin Ag and Au layers on Mo(1 1 1) surface

The influence of temperature on the growth process of ultra-thin Ag and Au layers on the Mo(1 1 1) surface was investigated. At 300 K growth of the Stranski–Krastanov type was found for Ag; for Au growth of the monolayer plus simultaneous multilayers type was found, where a base layer is one physical layer. The first three geometrical adsorbed layers for Ag are thermally stable. For annealed Au layers triangle features with base side length from 15 to 35 Å were formed for θ < 6 monolayer (ML), and for θ > 6 ML part of the Au formed a flat adlayer with Au atoms grouped in equilateral triangles with side length 7 Å. The presence of Au layers does not cause faceting, layers are not smooth which could be caused by the fact that Au does not wets the substrate. For Ag thick layers reversible wetting/non-wetting transition was observed at 600 K. Ag layers on Mo(1 1 1) surface did not lead to faceting.