Studying the features of copper sulfide growth during segregation on Cu(111) surface by means of AES, REELS and LEED

Features of copper sulfide growth on a Cu(111) surface resulting from sulfur impurity segregation were studied by means of AES, REELS and LEED in the range T = 300−1075 K. It was shown that the 2D sulphide formation is a multistage process that consists of the segregant accumulation in atomic similarity state up to a certain critical coverage (depending on temperature), followed by a comparatively rapid formation of 2D-phase domains due to chemical interaction and atomic ordering, and the slow growth of new phase domains up to an equilibrium coverage.