Electron stimulated desorption of NO from step sites on Pt(112): The role of chemisorption site geometry on the cross section

The electronic excitation of adsorbed NO on Pt(112) has been observed to cause mainly desorption. Species-specific total desorption cross sections of terminally bound and bridged-bound NO present exclusively on the step sites of Pt(112) have been measured using Fourier transform infrared reflection absorption spectroscopy (FT-IRAS) as a sensitive detector of the surface coverage of various chemisorbed NO species. Other electron stimulated processes which might influence the measurement of these cross sections, such as electron stimulated fragmentation, site-exchange, and occupied site density effects have been found to be unimportant. It was found for 275 eV electrons that terminally bound NO desorbs with a larger cross section (2.3 × 10^-18 cm²) than bridged-bound NO, which has a desorption cross section of 8.7 × 10^-19 cm². This is the expected relationship between the total desorption cross sections for these two species, with the smaller cross section being observed for the bridged NO.