Preparation and characterization of terraced surfaces of low-index faces of anatase, rutile, and brookite

Simple polishing and relatively low temperature annealing procedures for preparing atomically flat terraced surfaces of various single-crystal TiO2 polymorphs are described. Anatase (101), anatase (001), rutile (100), rutile (110), and brookite (111) surfaces could all be prepared with a terraced surface structure as revealed in AFM images. The rutile (100) and (110) and anatase (101) surfaces were also shown to produce acceptable LEED patterns immediately upon insertion into a UHV system without the usual sputter and anneal cycles.