Missing rows on oxygen-covered Cu(100) vicinal surfaces: A scanning tunnelling microscopy investigation

Scanning tunnelling microscopy images of oxygen-covered Cu(410) facets, of the Cu(100)(root 2x2 root 2)R45 degrees-O structure, and of the faceting of Cu(610) in the presence of adsorbed oxygen have been used to investigate the basic elements of the atomic-scale structure of these surfaces. The existence of stable (100) nanofacets of widths corresponding to those of(4n 1 0) (n = 2, 3,...) faces is shown to be consistent with a common structural model for all of these surfaces based on the well known structural unit of three adjacent [001] Cu atom rows and one missing row which comprises the Cu(100)(root 2x2 root 2)R45 degrees-O surface. This model implies that on the (410) surface the missing row lies at the bottom of each atomic step on this surface. All these structures have a common local geometry for the adsorbed O atoms coordinated to four Cu atoms