Faceting, reconstruction, and defect microstructure at ceramic surfaces revealed by atomic force microscopy

Abstract

Atomic force microscopy has been used to directly observe the surface microstructure and morphology of several single crystal ceramics which were either cleaved in air or processed in ultrahigh vacuum. Atomic and/or multiatomic height steps and atomically flat terraces were observed on cleaved Cr2O3 (101̄2) and NiO (100) surfaces and on polished and annealed Al2O3 (101̄2). Examples of faceting, reconstruction, and Ar+ ion induced damage were revealed on the (110), (100), and (001) surfaces of TiO2. Tip degradation and artifacts were evident during imaging of VC0.75 (100) surfaces. The atomic force microscopy results indicate that a wealth of nanometer scale features exists even on carefully prepared single crystal ceramic surfaces.