Thermal activation of the cesium-induced reconstruction of Ag(110)

The cesium-induced reconstruction of Ag(110) has been studied at temperatures 100 K < T < 300 K by LEED and work function measurements. Absolute Cs coverages were obtained from TDS measurements. Two thermally activated stages of the reconstruction process were observed with increasing temperature. First, the work function changed substantially and then, at a higher temperature, the (1×2) LEED pattern, previously reported by Hayden et al., appeared. These results are interpreted in terms of an initial local rearrangement of the substrate surface atoms followed by the formation of long-range order. The activation energies for both processes decreases with increasing Cs coverage.