Chlorine induced structural transformation and reconstruction of Cu(110)
In this work, we present our results on adsorption of molecular chlorine on copper (110) surface. In the course of chlorination, the copper (110) surface exhibits the significant structural transformations including considerable mass transport. Using combination of scanning tunnelling microscopy (5-300 K), low energy electron diffraction (80-300 K) and density functional theory calculations we were able to explain all experimentally observed findings and construct structural models for the surface chlorine structures. The Cu(110) surface appears to be reconstructed starting from the early stages of chlorine adsorption. An increase in the chlorine coverage leads to the sequence of the phase transitions between different types of reconstructions. At saturation of chlorine coverage, the faceting of Cu(110) surface takes place with formation of new {210} copper planes.