Stable Cation Inversion at the MgAl2O4(100) Surface

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A1 Alkuperäisartikkeli tieteellisessä aikakauslehdessä

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en

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Physical Review Letters, Volume 107, issue 3, pp. 1-4

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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.

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Rasmussen, M K, Foster, A S, Hinnemann, B, F. Canova, F, Helveg, S, Meinander, K, Martin, N M, Knudsen, J, Vlad, A, Lundgren, E, Stierle, A, Besenbacher, F & Lauritsen, J V 2011, 'Stable Cation Inversion at the MgAl 2 O 4 (100) Surface', Physical Review Letters, vol. 107, no. 3, 036102, pp. 1-4. https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.107.036102