A new investigation was made of the metastable 1 x 1 and reconstructed 5 x 1 phases of Ir(100) using quantitative low-energy electron diffraction and scanning tunnelling microscopy. It was shown that the 5 x 1 reconstruction of Ir(100) extended up to the fourth layer into the surface. This structural information was retrieved by the use of electron energies up to 600eV which simultaneously provided an unusually broad database of more than 10,000eV. Together with an excellent quality of the theory–experiment fit equivalent to an R-factor of RP = 0.144 this allows for rather small error limits of the as many as 17 structural parameters describing the four-layer reconstructed surface. Similar features held for the 1 x 1 phase which was analysed in parallel. In addition, a systematic investigation was made of the influence of the electron energy range applied and of the allowed depth of reconstruction on the accuracy of the analysis. It appeared that for the case of Ir(100)-5 x 1 the structural parameters describing the top two layers were largely independent from the consideration of the reconstruction of deeper layers.

Deep-Going Reconstruction of Ir(100)-5 x 1. A.Schmidt, W.Meier, L.Hammer, K.Heinz: Journal of Physics - Condensed Matter, 2002, 14[47], 12353-65