In situ high-temperature scanning tunneling microscopy studies of thermochemical stability of rutile-TiO2(110) and 6H–SiC(0001)

In situ microscopy studies with high spatial and temporal resolutions are ideally-suited for the quantitative description of factors controlling morphological, structural, and compositional evolution in materials and often reveal surprising and previously unknown aspects about the materials. This article showcases scanning tunneling microscopy as a viable and powerful characterization technique for in situ studies of mass transport phenomena controlling solid/vacuum, solid/gas, and solid/solid interfacial stabilities at elevated temperatures up to 1400 K. As representative examples, we present results from our recent studies of the kinetics of: TiO2(110) surface structural evolution as a function of gas chemistry and SiC(0001) surface graphitization in ultra-high vacuum. We expect that similar studies carried out on other technologically-important materials can help the design and development of better materials with improved functionalities.