Metal oxides may be prepared as thin (5-50 Angstrom) films on top of m
etallic substrates. By such means oxide substrates with properties ide
ntical to bulk oxides may be formed which can be studied via electron
spectroscopies without being hindered by charging, as well as cooling
problems. We report here on results on NiO and on Cr2O3 surfaces. We d
iscuss some structural aspects of oxide surfaces such as surface recon
struction of polar rock salt-type surfaces, and structural phase trans
itions on corundum type structures. The nature of the phase transition
will be discussed with respect to the magnetic properties of the oxid
e. Furthermore we report on the interaction of those surfaces with mol
ecules from the gas phase. In particular we study the interaction with
small molecules such as CO, NO, O-2, CO2, H2O and C2H4. We observe vi
a various surface sensitive techniques such as thermal desorption spec
troscopy (TDS), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), angle resolved
photoemission (ARUPS), electron energy loss spectroscopy (HREELS), in
frared-reflection-absorption-spectroscopy (IRAS), and near-edge-X-ray-
absorption-fine-structure spectroscopy (NEXAFS), associative as well a
s dissociative adsorption and in the case of ethylene also polymerizat
ion reactions. Via isotopic labelling techniques combined with IRAS we
study in detail the interaction of oxygen with the oxide surfaces, a
process of general interest in connection with oxidation reactions.