Thermal faceting of the rutile TiO2(001) surface

Temperature dependent faceting of rutile TiO₂ surfaces cut to the (001) plane has been reported Tait and Kasowski, Phys. Rev. B20 (1979) 5178]. By comparing LEED data to beam positions calculated for various sets of facet planes, the facet planes have been identified. The first ordered structure observed on annealing ion bombarded surfaces is composed of {011} facets with the facet planes in a (2 × 1) reconstruction. The high temperature structure produced on annealing above 1300K is best described as {114} facets; however, there are deviations of the observed LEED pattern from that calculated for {114} facets, possibly because of the presence of related planes. LEED data have now been obtained on the behavior of (110), (100), (011), (114), and (001) surfaces in UHV. The observed stability of TiO₂ surfaces can be related to the Ti ion coordination numbers in the surface plane as derived from stoichiometric terminations of the rutile lattice.