Highly proton-ordered water structures on oxygen precovered Ru{0001}

J Phys Chem A. 2011 Jun 30;115(25):7205-9. doi: 10.1021/jp200221b. Epub 2011 Apr 19.

Abstract

We present helium scattering measurements of a water ad-layer grown on a O(2 × 1)/Ru(0001) surface. The adsorbed water layer results in a well ordered helium diffraction pattern with systematic extinctions of diffraction spots due to glide line symmetries. The data reflects a well-defined surface structure that maintains proton order even at surprisingly high temperatures of 140 K. The diffraction data we measure is consistent with a structure recently derived from STM measurements performed at 6 K. Comparison with recent DFT calculation is in partial agreement, suggesting that these calculations might be underestimating the contribution of relative water molecule orientations to the binding energy.