The O-terminated KNbO3 (110) surface is modeled using a semi-empirical shel
l model and two different short-range interatomic potentials. We find this
surface to be unstable with respect to a strong reconstruction and K-termin
ation. This conclusion is confirmed by preliminary calculations using the a
b initio linear combination of atomic orbitals (LCAO) formalism. (C) 2000 E
lsevier Science S.A. All rights reserved.