AVS 58th Annual International Symposium and Exhibition
    Surface Science Division Wednesday Sessions
       Session SS2-WeM

Paper SS2-WeM11
Hydrogen Adatom Manipulation on the Rutile TiO2(110) Surface using LT-STM

Wednesday, November 2, 2011, 11:20 am, Room 109

Session: Chemisorption on Metal & Oxide Nanoparticles
Presenter: Peter Sutter, Brookhaven National Laboratory
Authors: P. Sutter, Brookhaven National Laboratory
D. Acharya, Brookhaven National Laboratory
N. Camillone III, Brookhaven National Laboratory
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Characterization and control of the structure of TiO2 surfaces at the single-atom level are vital to the development of a fundamental understanding of the chemistry and physics of this technologically important oxide. In this work we investigate the use of a low-temperature scanning tunneling microscope (LT-STM) tip to manipulate individual hydrogen adatoms on the rutile TiO2(110) surface at 77 K. We show that applied voltage pulses are effective for transferring hydrogen atoms from the surface to the STM tip with single-atom control. This tip-induced ‘desorption’ is useful for unambiguously distinguishing between surface hydroxyls (OHbr) and bridging oxygen (Obr) vacancies—two common surface defects whose appearance in STM images is quite similar. In addition we show that individual atoms can be redeposited on the surface precisely at selected Obr sites, allowing for the controlled preparation of arbitrary hydrogen adatom assemblies. Such control is a prerequisite for the investigation of the structural dependence of surface photo- and thermal reactivity at the single-molecule level.