Evidence for the formation of metallic mercury overlayers on Si(111)

A strongly chemisorbed Hg species is observed following the adsorption of Hg on Si(111) at 110 K. This strongly chemisorbed Hg species and subsequently weakly chemisorbed Hg species are observed to be metallic in the photoemission final state as determined by resonant photoemission and the reduction of photovoltaic charging. We postulate that the strongly chemisorbed Hg species on Si(111) is more metallic at dilute coverages than Hg adsorbed on Cu(100)