UHV Electron Microscopy study of in situ annealed (100) surfaces of MgO

The (100) surface of magnesium oxide is of considerable interest because of its frequent use as substrate for epitaxial growth of metal films, high Tc superconductors and model catalyst systems. A large number of surface characterization techniques have been used to determine the atomic structure of the cleaved (100) surface. Clean surfaces have been produced either by cleaving MgO crystals in-situ under ultra-high vacuum (UHV) conditions, or more frequently, by cleaving in air and subsequent annealing in UHV. A wide variety of annealing temperatures and times have been used by different researchers, the upper limit on the temperature being set at ≈900°C to avoid segregation of Ca to the surface. Calcium is the main impurity in even the purest MgO crystals and a few studies have dealt with the structure of the Ca-rich (100) surface of MgO. All of the existing studies have used diffraction and spectroscopy techniques without imaging of the surface. It is the purpose of this work to study the topography of the UHV-annealed (100) surface by reflection electron microscopy (REM).