Determination of the surface electronic structure of Fe3O4(1 1 1) by soft X-ray spectroscopy

• Surface termination of Fe3O4(1 1 1) grown on Pt(1 1 1).
• Surface sensitive XPS can identify oxidation states of the surface Fe cations.
• Surface sensitive O K-edge and Fe L-edge X-ray absorption spectroscopy.
• Topmost surface of Fe3O4(1 1 1) is octahedrally coordinated Fe3+ rich.

The determination of surface terminations in transition metal oxides is not trivial because many structural configurations could be possible. They exhibit various terminations depending on the oxidation states of metal cations exposed to the surface. Fe3O4 is one example in which octahedrally and tetrahedrally coordinated Fe2+ and Fe3+ cations coexists with oxygen anions. For the identification of the surface termination of Fe3O4(1 1 1) grown on Pt(1 1 1) we have employed surface sensitive synchrotron based X-ray photoelectron and absorption spectroscopy. It has been shown that the topmost surface is octahedrally coordinated Fe3+ rich.

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