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J. Gustafson, A. Resta, A. Mikkelsen, R. Westerström, J.N. Andersen, E. Lundgren, J. Weissenrieder, M. Schmid, P. Varga, N. Kasper, X. Torrelles, S. Ferrer, F. Mittendorfer, G. Kresse:
"Oxygen-induced step bunching and faceting of Rh(553): Experiment and ab initio calculations";
Physical Review B, 74 (2006), 0354011 - 0354017.

Using a combined experimental and theoretical approach, we show that the initial oxidation of a Rh(553) surface, a surface vicinal to (111), undergoes step bunching when exposed to oxygen, forming lower-index facets. At a pressure of about 10-6 mbar and a temperature of 380 °C this leads to (331) facets with one-dimensional oxide chains along the steps, co-existing with (111) facets. Further increase of the pressure and temperature results in (111) facets only, covered by a O-Rh-O surface oxide. Our density functional theory calculations provide an atomistic understanding of the observed behavior.

Corresponding author: J. Gustafson. Reprints also available from M. Schmid (schmid).

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