The structure of the oxygen induced (1×5) reconstruction of V(100)

The adsorption of 1 L oxygen on the V(100) surface at 200°C leads to a (1×5) reconstruction. The structure of this surface was determined by scanning tunneling microscopy (STM), low energy electron diffraction (quantitative LEED) and density functional theory calculations. The STM images show dark lines every fifth vanadium lattice constant. Between these (1×5) lines, oxygen resides in four-fold coordinated hollow sites with a coverage of ≈70%. From the LEED analysis (Pendry R-factor=0.17) it was found that in the dark lines oxygen adsorbs in bridge sites, in agreement with the ab initio calculations. The driving force behind this reconstruction is surface stress induced by the vanadium–oxygen bonds.