The self-assembly of metallic nanowires
We have demonstrated that nickel adatoms self-assemble into quasi one-dimensional nanowires on vicinal Rh(111) surfaces by decorating their regular monoatomic step arrays, while V adatoms do not. The step decoration process has been followed experimentally by variable-temperature scanning tunnelling microscopy and high-resolution X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. The physical origin of the differe