Scattering of surface electrons from CuO stripes on Cu(1Â 1Â 0)

We report a reflectance difference spectroscopy (RDS) study on the scattering of surface states in the self-assembled Cu-CuO stripe phase on Cu(1 1 0). The influence of the dimensionality and ordering of surface defects and nanostructures on the scattering of the surface state electrons is revealed by comparing the optical response from the well ordered array of alternating Cu and CuO stripes to that of a disordered CuO phase or isolated CO molecules on the Cu(1 1 0) surface. Our studies demonstrate the potential of RDS as a sensitive tool for the characterization of the scattering properties of surface states from surface defects and nanostructures.