Emission of exoelectrons during oxidation of Cs via thermal activation of a metastableO2surface species

Abstract
Exposure of Cs surfaces to O2 causes the emission of exoelectrons. With a Cs monolayer on Ru(0001) the maximum yield is observed with an already partly oxidized surface on which a metastable O2 species could be identified. Thermally activated transformation (with an activation energy of 0.8 eV) of this phase leads to dissociation accompanied by exoelectron emission via Auger deexcitation.