Atomic and Electronic Structures of Unreconstructed Polar MgO(111) Thin Film on Ag(111)

Abstract

Atomic and electronic structures of a polar surface of MgO formed on Ag(111) was investigated by using reflection high energy electron diffraction (RHEED), Auger electron spectroscopy, electron energy loss spectroscopy (EELS), and ultraviolet photoemission spectroscopy (UPS). A rather flat unreconstructed polar MgO(111) 1$\times$1 surface could be grown by alternate adsorption of Mg and O${}_2$ on Ag(111). The stability of the MgO(111) surface was discussed in terms of interaction between Ag and Mg atoms at the interface, and charge state of the surface atoms. EELS of this surface did not show a band gap region, and finite density of states appeared at the Fermi level in UPS. These results suggest that a polar MgO(111) surface was not an insulating surface but a semiconducting or metallic surface.

6 figures, to be published in Phys. Rev. B

References in corpus (1)

• Metal-Induced Gap States at Well Defined Alkali-Halide/Metal Interfaces

Cited by in corpus (6)

• Polar Discontinuity Doping of the LaVO_3/SrTiO_3 Interface
• Polar surface engineering in ultra-thin MgO(111)/Ag(111) -- possibility of metal-insulator transition and magnetism
• Interface hole-doping in cuprate-titanate superlattices
• Metal-induced gap states in epitaxial organic-insulator/metal interfaces
• Electronic charge and orbital reconstruction at cuprate-titanate interfaces
• Modulation of magnetism via electric field in MgO nanoribbons