Initial Oxidation Kinetics of Copper (110) Thin Films As Investigated By IN SITU UHV-TEM

Abstract In the study of metal oxidation, there is a wide gap between information provided by surface science methods and that provided by bulk oxidation studies. The former have mostly examined the adsorption of up to ∽1 monolayer (ML) of oxygen on the metal surface, where as both low and high temperature bulk oxidation studies have mainly focused on the growth of an oxide layer at the later stages of oxidation. Hence, we are visualizing the initial oxidation stages of a model metal system by in situ ultra-high vacuum (UHV) transmission electron microscopy (TEM), where the surfaces are atomically clean, in order to gain new understanding of these ambiguous stages of oxidation. We have previously studied the growth of Cu2O islands during initial oxidation of Cu(100) film. We are presently investigating the initial stages of Cu(110) oxidation, from 10−4 Torr O2 to atmospheric pressures and temperature range from room temperature to 700 °C.