Segregation-induced low-dimensional surface structures in oxide semiconductors

Abstract

The present work considers quasi-isolated low-dimensional surface structures, which are formed as a result of segregation of intrinsic and extrinsic defects in oxide semiconductors. It has been documented that the local properties of these structures, such as crystalline structure, electronic structure, chemical composition, as well as charge and mass transport kinetics, are entirely different from those of the bulk phase. There is an increasingly urgent need to better understand their local properties, which have a strong impact on the reactivity of solids in general and photocatalytic properties in particular. The accumulation of data on the properties of surface structures opens a new discipline of the science of materials interfaces. The present work is focused on the surface structures, which are formed at TiO2-based semiconductors. It is shown that these structures play crucial role in the conversion of solar energy into chemical energy. © 2014, Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg.