Oxygen-Mediated Diffusion of Oxygen Vacancies on the TiO2(110) Surface
Renald Schaub,
Erik Wahlström,
Anders Rønnau,
Erik Lægsgaard,
Ivan Stensgaard,
Flemming Besenbacher*
Defects such as oxygen vacancies play a crucial role
in the surface properties of transition metal oxides. By means of
time-resolved, high-resolution scanning tunneling microscopy, we
unraveled an adsorbate-mediated diffusion mechanism of oxygen vacancies
on rutile TiO2(110). Adsorbed oxygen molecules mediate
vacancy diffusion through the loss of an oxygen atom to a vacancy and
the sequential capture of an oxygen atom from a neighboring bridging
oxygen row, leading to an anisotropic oxygen vacancy diffusion pathway
perpendicular to the bridging oxygen rows.
Interdisciplinary Nanoscience Center, Department of Physics and
Astronomy and CAMP, University of Aarhus, DK-8000 Aarhus C, Denmark.
*
To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail:
fbe{at}phys.au.dk