Surface hydroxyl formation on vacuum-annealed TiO2(110)

The change in surface composition and structure of a rutile TiO2(110) surfa ce during thermal annealing in an ultrahigh vacuum was studied by coaxial i mpact-collision ion scattering spectroscopy and time-of-flight elastic reco il detection analysis. When the clean TiO2(110) surface with a 1x1 bridging -oxygen-rows structure was obtained by annealing at 730 degreesC, about one monolayer of hydrogen atoms still resided on the surface. These hydrogen a toms were assigned to surface hydroxyls as an ingredient of the TiO2(110)1x 1 structure, which was formed in the self-restoration process of surface ox ygen vacancy defects by dissociative adsorption of water molecules during t hermal annealing. (C) 2001 American Institute of Physics.