Effects of interadsorbate interactions on surface resistivity: oxygen on sulfur-predosed Cu(100)

Measurements of surface resistivity as a function of coverage for oxygen adsorbed on sulfur-predosed Cu(100) films reveal two types of interactions between sulfur and oxygen: S-O repulsion and short-range suppression of the surface resistivity change induced by oxygen adsorption. The repulsive interaction causes oxygen atoms to first occupy adsorption sites far from the sulfur atoms, beyond second-nearest-neighbor sites, where the oxygen-induced surface resistivity is unaffected by sulfur. As a result the low-coverage variation of surface resistivity with oxygen coverage is indistinguishable from the linear dependence observed for oxygen on clean Cu(100). As the oxygen coverage increases, oxygen begins to occupy sites close to sulfur. At the nearest-neighbor sites, the resistivity change due to added oxygen is completely suppressed, and the sample resistance levels off, remaining unchanged even as oxygen continues to adsorb. This resistivity suppression may involve both a reduction of oxygen's direct effect on the resistivity and an oxygen-induced reduction in the resistivity due to the already adsorbed sulfur. With increasing sulfur precoverage both the maximum resistivity change and the oxygen coverage at which the leveling occurs decrease, because the number of sites unaffected by sulfur is reduced. Both the sulfur-oxygen repulsion and the resistivity suppression presumably arise from a through-metal coupling involving adsorbate-induced modifications of the local electronic structure.