The rutile TiO2(110) surface was a highly anisotropic surface exhibiting so-called channels delimited by oxygen rows. In previous experimental and theoretical density functional theory work the molybdenum adsorption sites had been identified. They were located within the channels. Experimental studies had shown that, during subsequent annealing after deposition, special molybdenum nanostructures could be formed; especially two-monolayer high pyramidal chains of atoms. In order to understand better the dynamics of nanostructure formation, a kinetic Monte Carlo study was made of the diffusion and adsorption of molybdenum atoms on a TiO2(110) surface. A quasi one-dimensional lattice gas model was used which described the possible adsorption sites of a Mo atom in a single channel of the surface. The atomic positions of a 1.5 monolayer thick Mo film formed of pyramidal chains defined the lattice sites of the model. The formation of three-dimensional clusters could thus be studied. Here cluster formation was studied as a function of parameters that could be controlled in a growth experiment by physical vapor deposition: deposition and annealing temperature, flux and total amount of deposited Mo.

Dynamics of Molybdenum Nano Structure Formation on the TiO2(110) Surface: a Kinetic Monte Carlo Approach. G.I.Saux, P.Krüger, B.Domenichini, L.Imhoff, S.Bourgeois: Applied Surface Science, 2006, 252[15], 5399-402