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Materials science

Edge effects

Nature volume 419, pages 28–29 (2002)Cite this article

How do crystal structures terminate at 'flat' surfaces? New developments in electron crystallography mean that the detailed atomic structure of surfaces in complex crystals can be determined — with surprising results.

Anyone who has made a model of a crystal structure, or even just a drawing of one, must surely be struck by the fact that there is rarely, if ever, a satisfactory way of terminating the structure. Almost invariably, atoms with missing bonds are left dangling at the surface, and the chemist, at least, will immediately conclude that there must be some rearrangement at the surface to produce a more satisfactory bonding configuration. Remarkably, except for a handful of elemental and simple binary materials, until now we have had no knowledge of the real structure of most crystal surfaces, despite their enormous importance. But on page 55 of this issue, Erdman et al.1 show how direct-methods electron crystallography coupled with ab initio electronic structure calculations can be used to determine a complex surface structure of strontium titanate, SrTiO3. The results are surprising (although, with hindsight, perhaps to be expected) and they suggest that a new era of surface crystallography is beginning.

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Figure 1: The crystal structure of SrTiO3.

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  1. Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, Arizona State University, Tempe, 85287, Arizona, USA

    Michael O'Keeffe

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  1. Michael O'Keeffe
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Correspondence to Michael O'Keeffe.

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O'Keeffe, M. Edge effects. Nature 419, 28–29 (2002). https://doi.org/10.1038/419028a

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/419028a

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