Stacking and structure of platinum on Cu (1 1 1) up to five monolayers

A quantitative investigation of the stacking and structure of ultrathin films of Pt deposited on a Cu (1 1 1) surface has been carried out by a combination of real space low energy ion scattering (LEIS) and low energy electron diffraction (LEED) techniques. At room temperature, Pt grew epitaxially on Cu (1 1 1) in the layer-by-layer mode. The Pt films have the regular fee stacking up to 5 Monolayers (ML) determined by measuring the incident angle dependence associated with shadowing effects. The thermal treatment of the Pt films (from monolayer up to five layers) triggered the Pt diffusion and mixing with the Cu substrate to form a Cu₃Pt (1 1 1)-like surface alloy over at least three atomic layers. © 1998 Elsevier Science B.V.