Physisorption-induced surface reconstruction and morphology changes: Adsorption of glycine on the Au(110) 1 × 2 surface

Although it is well-known that chemisorption may change the reconstruction or even the morphology of metal surfaces, one would not expect to see similar effects induced by physisorption. In this paper, we report, however, exactly such effects induced by physisorption of glycine on the Au(110) 1 x 2 surface. Specifically, at low coverage the adsorbates can change the 1 x 2 reconstructed surface to a well-ordered 1 x 3, whereas further adsorption can even dramatically modify the surface morphology until becoming completely faceted. As byproducts, two new reconstructions of clean Au(110), i.e., 1 x 1 and 1 x 3, have been found, with the former being metastable at or below room temperature while the latter at higher temperatures not beyond 170 degreesC. The fast and reversible room-temperature local transition between the two along with its possible mechanism will also be discussed.