Bridging the pressure and materials gaps between catalysis and surface science: clean and modified oxide surfaces

The preparation of model systems based on thin epitaxial oxide films and ox ide single crystals is discussed. A variety of surface sensitive techniques has been applied to study the geometric and electronic properties of these systems. The findings are correlated with adsorption and reaction of probe molecules on the surfaces. Metal vapor deposition under controlled conditi ons leads to the formation of metal aggregates with narrow size distributio ns. Their properties have been characterized, establishing that we can begi n to bridge the materials gap between catalysis and surface science. While mainly performed under UHV conditions, adsorption measurements can be pushe d to ambient conditions using non-linear optical techniques such as sum fre quency generation. Results for systems with deposited metal aggregates wilt be discussed.