Chemical vapor deposition of ordered TiOx nanostructures on Au(111)

The deposition of TiOx (x ≤ 2) structures on Au(111) by chemical vapor deposition (CVD) in ultrahigh vacuum (UHV) has been investigated with high-resolution core level photoelectron spectroscopy (PES), low-energy electron diffraction (LEED) and scanning tunneling microscopy (STM). Using titanium tetra-isopropoxide as single source precursor it is possible to form different TiOx phases on the surface after deposition: at low coverages, we observe large two-dimensional (2D) honeycomb-lattice Ti2O3 islands with a (2 × 2) registry with the substrate. Higher coverages are dominated by the formation of three-dimensional (3D) TiO2 structures. The TiO2 structures are atomically well ordered provided that the deposition temperature is high enough (500 °C). The ordered structure exhibits a LEED pattern characteristic for a rectangular surface unit cell. By performing the deposition at different temperatures it is possible to tune the balance between the 2D and 3D phases: Growth at 500 °C significantly favors the formation of 3D TiO2 islands as compared to growth at 200 °C and 300 °C.