AVS 49th International Symposium
    Surface Science Tuesday Sessions
       Session SS3-TuM

Paper SS3-TuM6
Oxygen Vacancies on TiO@sub 2@(110) : An STM Study of Adsorbate Mediated Diffusion

Tuesday, November 5, 2002, 10:00 am, Room C-112C

Session: Metals, Adsorbates, and Defects on TiO@sub 2@
Presenter: R. Schaub, University of Aarhus, Denmark
Authors: R. Schaub, University of Aarhus, Denmark
E. Wahlström, University of Aarhus, Denmark
A. Ronnau, University of Aarhus, Denmark
E. Laegsgaard, University of Aarhus, Denmark
I. Stensgaard, University of Aarhus, Denmark
F. Besenbacher, University of Aarhus, Denmark
Correspondent: Click to Email
Time resolved fast Scanning Tunneling Microscopy (STM) experiments reveal a spatially correlated diffusion of oxygen vacancies present on the rutile TiO@sub 2@(110) surface. The diffusion is observed to occur exclusively perpendicular to the oxygen bridging rows of the (1x1) reconstructed surface. This unexpected behavior is unambiguously assigned to trace amounts of adsorbates present on the surface which mediate the oxygen vacancy diffusion. Based on high resolution STM movies, a novel atomistic diffusion mechanism is proposed.