Epitaxial growth of molybdenum on TiO 2 (1 1 0) B. Domenichini a,b, * , M. Petukhov a,c , G.A. Rizzi a , M. Sambi a , S. Bourgeois b , G. Granozzi a a Dipartimento di Chimica Inorganica, Metallorganica ed Analitica ed Unita di Ricerca INFM, Universita di Padova, Via Loredan 4, 35131 Padova, Italy b Laboratoire de Recherches sur la R eactivit e des Solides, UMR 5613 CNRS, Universit e de Bourgogne, 9, av. A Savary, BP 47870, 21078 Dijon c edex, France c Russian Research Center, Kurchatov Institute, Kurchatov sq., 123182 Moscow, Russia Received 12 May 2003; accepted for publication 18 July 2003 Abstract Molybdenum was deposited on blue (i.e. non-stoichiometric) TiO 2 (1 1 0) surface using a very low deposition rate (less than 0.05 eqML min 1 ). The resulting deposit was investigated by means of X-ray photoelectron diffraction (XPD), LEED and XPS. Just after deposition, the film is mainly constituted of metallic molybdenum, contains oxygen homogeneously dispersed through the whole deposit and the broad features detected in XPD scans are interpreted as a coarse epitaxy between TiO 2 (1 1 0) surface and the (0 0 1) face of bcc molybdenum. The orientation relationship is: Mo(1 0 0)[0 0 1]//TiO 2 (1 1 0)[0 0 1]. After annealing the deposit at 673 K, XPD scans become sharper and epitaxy is achieved even if no LEED pattern is observed. Moreover, the annealing induces a noticeable decrease of the oxygen content inside the film. Ó 2003 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. Keywords: Molybdenum; Tin oxides; Epitaxy; Growth; X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy 1. Introduction Deposition of a metal on an oxide substrate can allow the preparation of a wide range of systems exhibiting different properties. Hence, by this way, it is possible to prepare both a wide range of 3D metallic nanoparticles with specific morphology and orientation with respect to the substrate [1] and ultra thin compact layers of an oxide resulting from the oxidation of the deposited metal by the oxygen diffusing from the substrate [2]. Sometimes, it is possible to drastically change the nature of a deposit simply by playing on either the substrate characteristics (stoichiometry, crystallinity, rough- ness, ...) or on the deposition conditions (atmo- sphere around the substrate or temperature, deposition rate, ...). In the case of the Mo/TiO 2 (1 1 0) systems, pre- vious works showed that the deposition condi- tions are crucial in controlling the final state of the * Corresponding author. Address: Laboratoire de Recher- ches sur la Reactivite des Solides, UMR 5613 CNRS, Univer- site de Bourgogne, 9, av. A Savary, BP 47870, 21078 Dijon cedex, France. Tel.: +33-3-80-39-61-55; fax: +33-3-80-39-61-32. E-mail address: bruno.domenichini@u-bourgogne.fr (B. Domenichini). 0039-6028/$ - see front matter Ó 2003 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.susc.2003.07.013 Surface Science 544 (2003) 135–146 www.elsevier.com/locate/susc