The surfaces of perovskite oxides affect their functional properties, and while a bulk-truncated (1×1) termination is generally assumed, its existence and stability is controversial. Here, such a surface is created by cleaving the prototypical SrTiO3(001) in ultra-high vacuum, and its response to thermal annealing is observed. Atomically resolved nc-AFM shows that intrinsic point defects on the as-cleaved surface migrate at temperatures above 200\,∘C. At 400--500\,∘C, a disordered surface layer forms, albeit still with a (1×1) pattern in LEED. Purely TiO2-terminated surfaces, prepared by wet-chemical treatment, are also disordered despite their (1×1) periodicity in LEED.
@article{arxiv.2012.08831,
title = {Does a pristine, unreconstructed SrTiO$_3$(001) surface exist?},
author = {Igor Sokolović and Giada Franceschi and Zhichang Wang and Jian Xu and Jiří Pavelec and Michele Riva and Michael Schmid and Ulrike Diebold and Martin Setvín},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2012.08831},
year = {2021}
}