Dynamical LEED analyses of the clean and the NO-adsorbed Ir(111) surface

The adsorption structure of nitric oxide (NO) on Ir(111) was studied by thermal desorption spectroscopy (TDS) and dynamical analyses of low-energy electron diffraction (LEED). At the saturation coverage at about 100K, a 2×2 pattern was observed by LEED and two peaks appeared at 365 and 415K in TDS. No change in the LEED I–V curves was observed by annealing at 280K, which means that the NO-saturated surface was retained at this temperature. On the contrary, partial desorption and changes of the LEED I–V curves were observed by annealing at 360K. Combined with previous vibrational studies, it is suggested that one adsorption species is not affected, while another species is partially desorbed and the rest of them are dissociated by annealing at 360K. Dynamical analyses of LEED were performed for the 280K-annealed and the 360K-annealed surfaces, which correspond to the NO-saturated and the NO-dissociated Ir(111) surfaces, respectively. These revealed that NO occupies the atop, fcc-hollow and hcp-hollow sites (atop-NO+fcc-NO+hcp-NO) for the NO-saturated Ir(111) surface with the saturation coverage of 0.75 ML. For the 360K-annealed surface, the atop-NO is not affected but the fcc-NO and the hcp-NO are partially desorbed as NO and partially dissociated to N and O, both of which occupy the fcc-hollow site on the surface. ► Clean and NO-adsorbed Ir(111) surface were studied by LEED dynamical analyses. ► Very small (1%) contraction occurs for the 1st layer of the clean Ir(111) surface. ► NO occupies the atop, fcc-hollow and hcp-hollow sites at the saturation coverage. ► The atop-NO does not dissociate but desorbs at 415K by annealing. ► The hollow-NO partially desorbs and partially dissociates by annealing at 360K.