LEED-IV study of the rutile TiO2(110)-1×2 surface with a Ti-interstitial added-row reconstruction (original) (raw)

Upon sputtering and annealing in UHV at ϳ1000 K, the rutile TiO 2 ͑110͒ surface undergoes a 1 ϫ 1 → 1 ϫ 2 phase transition. The resulting 1 ϫ 2 surface is Ti rich, formed by strands of double Ti rows as seen on scanning tunneling microscopic images, but its detailed structure and composition have been subject to debate in the literature for years. Recently, Park et al. ͓Phys. Rev. Lett. 96, 226105 ͑2006͔͒ have proposed a model where Ti atoms are located on interstitial sites with Ti 2 O stoichiometry. This model, when it is analyzed using LEED-IV data ͓Phys. Rev. Lett. 96, 0055502 ͑2006͔͒, does not yield an agreement between theory and experiment as good as the previous best fit for Onishi and Iwasawa's model for the long-range 1 ϫ 2 reconstruction. Therefore, the Ti 2 O 3 added row is the preferred one from the point of view low-energy electron diffraction.