Spectral correspondence to the evolution of chemical bond and valence band in oxidation

Abstract

Spectroscopy covering energies around Fermi level of a metal is of particular interest as it does give direct information of bond forming and its consequence on the energy states (DOS). However, the origin of some outstanding spectral features from metal surface with chemisorbed oxygen has not yet been well established. It is shown in this letter that a bond-to-band model for oxidation enables the nature of a sum of spectral features to be consistently defined. All the spectral changes in the STS, XPS, UPS, photoemission spectroscopy (PES) and the thermal desorption spectroscopy (TDS) are classified by four DOS features around Fermi level and three bonding processes. Such a definition leads not only to new knowledge of the nature of O-metal interaction but also to a direct understanding of the bond-and-band forming dynamics.