STM observation of surface phases of Sn/Cu(0 0 1)

Geometrical structures of the Sn-adsorbed Cu(0 0 1) surfaces are studied with scanning tunneling microscopy. There are four phases in the Sn coverage range between 0.2 and 0.5 mono-atomic layer (ML). On the basis of the observed atomic images in this range, we propose structural models for the phases with 0.33 and 0.375 ML of Sn. All the phases consist of embedded Sn atoms in the Cu surface, forming two-dimensional surface alloy structures. On the surface with ∼0.4 ML of Sn, a novel one-dimensional structure is observed.