A controversy concerning the nature of the surfaces of Fe3O4(001) and γ-Fe2O3(001), grown onto MgO(001) by molecular beam epitaxy, was considered. Despite claims to the contrary, it was shown that γ-Fe2O3(001) unambiguously exhibited a (1 x 1) surface net, in contrast to Fe3O4(001), which assumed a (√2 x √2)R45 reconstruction. In addition, high-energy-resolution Fe 2p and O 1s core-level photo-electron spectra obtained at both normal and grazing emission were presented for γ-Fe2O3(001) and Fe3O4(001).

Surface Termination, Composition and Reconstruction of Fe3O4(001) and γ-Fe2O3(001). S.A.Chambers, S.A.Joyce: Surface Science, 1999, 420[2-3], 111-22