Relaxations and Interfacial Water Ordering at the Corundum (110) Surface

Abstract

In situ high resolution specular X-ray reflectivity measurements were used to examine relaxations and interfacial water ordering occurring at the corundum (110)-water interface. Sample preparation affected the resulting surface structure. Annealing in air at 1373 K produced a reconstructed surface formed through an apparently ordered aluminum vacancy. The effect of the reconstruction on in-plane periodicity was not determined. The remaining aluminum sites on the surface maintain full coordination by oxygen and the surface was coated with a layer of physically adsorbed water. Ordering of water further from the surface was not observed. Acid etching of this surface and preparing a surface through annealing at 723 K both produced an unreconstructed surface with identical relaxations and water ordering. Relaxations were confined primarily to the top ∼4 A of the surface and were dominated by an increased distribution width of the fully occupied surface aluminum site and outward relaxation of the oxygen surface...