The surfaces of metal
oxides often are reconstructed with a geometry and composition that
is considerably different from a simple termination of the bulk. Such
structures can also be viewed as ultrathin films, epitaxed on a substrate.
Here, the reconstructions of the SrTiO3 (110) surface are
studied combining scanning tunneling microscopy (STM), transmission
electron diffraction, and X-ray absorption spectroscopy (XAS), and
analyzed with density functional theory calculations. Whereas SrTiO3 (110) invariably terminates with an overlayer of titania,
with increasing density its structure switches from n × 1 to 2 × n. At the same time the coordination
of the Ti atoms changes from a network of corner-sharing tetrahedra
to a double layer of edge-shared octahedra with bridging units of
octahedrally coordinated strontium. This transition from the n × 1 to 2 × n reconstructions
is a transition from a pseudomorphically stabilized tetrahedral network
toward an octahedral titania thin film with stress-relief from octahedral
strontia units at the surface.
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