Stabilizing Single Ni adatoms on a Two-dimensional Porous Titania Overlayer at the SrTiO${}_3$(110) Surface

Abstract

Nickel vapor-deposited on the SrTiO${}_3$(110) surface was studied using scanning tunneling microscopy, photoemission spectroscopy (PES), and density functional theory calculations. This surface forms a (4 $\times$ 1) reconstruction, composed of a 2-D titania structure with periodic six- and ten-membered nanopores. Anchored at these nanopores, Ni single adatoms are stabilized at room temperature. PES measurements show that the Ni adatoms create an in-gap state located at 1.9 eV below the conduction band minimum and induce an upward band bending. Both experimental and theoretical results suggest that Ni adatoms are positively charged. Our study produces well-dispersed single-adatom arrays on a well-characterized oxide support, providing a model system to investigate single-adatom catalytic and magnetic properties.

References in corpus (11)

• Unveiling a two-dimensional electron gas with universal subbands at the surface of SrTiO3
• CO Induced Adatom Sintering in a Model Catalyst: Pd/Fe3O4
• Ordered Array of Single Adatoms with Remarkable Thermal Stability: Au/Fe3O4(001)
• Ordered Array of Single Au Adatoms with Remarkable Thermal Stability: Au/Fe3O4(001)
• Anisotropic two-dimensional electron gas at SrTiO3(110) protected by its native overlayer
• Coherent and Incoherent States of Electron-doped SrTiO3
• Evolution of the Surface Structures on SrTiO${}_3$(110) Tuned by Ti or Sr Concentration
• Water Adsorption at the Tetrahedral Titania Surface Layer of SrTiO${}_3$(110)-(4$\times$1)
• Strain-induced Defect Superstructure on the SrTiO3(110) Surface
• Reversible Transition Between Thermodynamically Stable Phases with Low Density of Oxygen Vacancies on SrTiO${}_3$(110) Surface
• The Small Unit Cell Reconstructions of SrTiO3 (111)

Cited by in corpus (1)

• Transition from reconstruction towards thin film on the (110) surface of strontium titanate