Manipulation of oxide surfaces

Metal oxides have considerable potential as insulating supports for nanoscale electronic devices. One of the key attributes of metal oxide surfaces is their capacity to be modified by electron beams and scanning probe tips. Such modifications can involve the creation of O vacancies or an area of a different reconstruction, which in principle can act as anchoring points or templates for molecules or metal interconnects. In this Prospective we describe previous attempts at well-defined modification in order to illustrate this potential.