Surface electronic structure and morphology of silver on iron oxide films

The surface and electronic structure of silver grown on well defined FeO(111), Fe3O4(111) and Fe2O3(0001) films have been in situ studied using various surface analytical techniques. For Ag grown on FeO(111) or Fe2O3(0001) surfaces, the silver Mie plasmon resonance observed at about 3.8 eV at initial coverage indicates three dimensional growth mode of silver. Contrarily, no Mie plasmon peak detected for Ag on Fe3O4(111) at initial coverage of Ag suggests a wetting behavior. The main mechanism of Ag growth mode on iron oxide films and the interfacial interaction are discussed. The interfacial information is useful for noble metal–iron oxides system in chemical reactions, e.g. in photocatalysis and biology.