New directions for atomic steps: step alignment by grazing incident ion beams on TiO2(110)

Grazing incidence low energy ion beams preferentially erode steps with directional components normal to the azimuthal direction of the beam, thus generating step edges aligned along the beam direction. With this kinetic method, the fabrication of thermodynamically metastable low index step-edge orientations is demonstrated on TiO2(110). The 11[over ]0 step edge is prepared, enabling its atomic structure determination by scanning tunneling microscopy and density-functional theory. A reconstructed atom configuration is revealed, which is reminiscent of the structure of the rutile-TiO2(001)-(2 x 1) face.