We have characterized the thermochemistry of the gadolinium-copper interface using valence-band photoemission. We find that the copper substrate binds strongly with the gadolinium overlayer, based upon valence-band binding-energy shifts that occur with increasing gadolinium coverages on Cu(100). The net potential for copper at the interface is 3.82 eV/atom which is some 0.51 eV/atom greater than the heat of sublimation for copper. The strong bonds formed between copper and gadolinium provide a thermochemical driving force for copper gadolinium-alloy formation. We observed a surface-to-bulk core-level shift for gadolinium of 0.3–0.4 eV. We also observed a Cu 3d binding-energy increase of 0.73 eV with increasing coverage.

• Received 13 March 1989

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.40.3348