Details

Autor(en) / Beteiligte

• Rasmussen, Morten K
• Foster, Adam S
• Hinnemann, Berit
• Canova, Filippo F
• Helveg, Stig
• Meinander, Kristoffer
• Martin, Natalia M
• Knudsen, Jan
• Vlad, Alina
• Lundgren, Edvin
• Stierle, Andreas
• Besenbacher, Flemming
• Lauritsen, Jeppe V

Titel

Stable cation inversion at the MgAl2O4(100) surface

Ist Teil von

• Physical review letters, 2011-07, Vol.107 (3), p.036102-036102

Ort / Verlag

United States

Erscheinungsjahr

2011

Quelle

PROLA

Beschreibungen/Notizen

• From an interplay of atom-resolved noncontact atomic force microscopy, surface x-ray diffraction experiments, and density functional theory calculations, we reveal the detailed atomic-scale structure of the (100) surface of an insulating ternary metal oxide, MgAl2O4 (spinel). We surprisingly find that the MgAl2O4(100) surface is terminated by an Al and O-rich structure with a thermodynamically favored amount of Al atoms interchanged with Mg. This finding implies that so-called Mg-Al antisites, which are defects in the bulk of MgAl2O4, become a thermodynamically stable and integral part of the surface.