A NIXSW structural investigation of the low temperature silyl phase formed by SiH4 reaction with Cu(111)

The structure of the Cu(111)-(3×3)-SiHx surface formed by reaction of silane (SiH4) with Cu(111) at 140 K, has been determined using normal incidence X-ray standing wave (NIXSW) analysis. The (3×3) phase, thought to comprise a mixture of SiH3 (2/9 ML) and SiH or Si species (1/9 ML), has all the surface silicon atoms located in hcp 3-fold hollow sites at a distance of 1.98±0.04Å from the surface copper scatterer planes.