Imaging the atomic arrangements on the high-temperature reconstructed α-Al2O3(0001) surface

Alumina is a technologically important oxide crystal because of its use as a catalyst and as a substrate for microelectronic applications1. A precise knowledge of its surface atomic structure is a prerequisite for understanding and controlling the physical processes involved in many of its applications2. Here we use a dynamic scanning force microscopy technique3 to image directly the atomic structure of the high-temperature phase of the α-Al2O3(0001) surface. Evidence for a surface reconstruction appears as a grid of protrusions that represent a rhombic unit cell, and we confirm that the arrangement of atoms is in the form of surface domains with hexagonal atomic order at the centre and disorder at the periphery. We show that, on exposing the surface to water and hydrogen, this surface structure is important in the formation of hydroxide clusters. These clusters appear as a regular pattern of rings that can be explained by self-organization processes involving cluster–surface and cluster–cluster interactions. Alumina has long been regarded as the definitive test for atomic-resolution force microscopy of insulators so the whole class of insulating oxides should now open for direct atomic-scale surface investigations.