Scattering of F atoms and anions on a TiO2(110) surface

Results of a study of energy losses and electron transfer processes for grazing scattering of fluorine atoms and anions scattering along different azimuthal orientations of the TiO2 crystal are presented. We observe strong variations in the overall intensity of scattered particles which are due to channelling effects. The energy losses do not show strong variations as a function of crystal azimuth except for the case of scattering along the (001) direction between the bridging oxygen atom rows, where we also observe differences in the energy losses of scattered ions and neutrals. We attribute this to the fact that larger F- survival occurs for trajectories staying farther from the surface, when also the energy losses remain small. The overall characteristics of energy losses are attributed mainly to trajectory effects due to scattering in regions of different electron density. Measurements of the ratio of scattered ions to the total scattered flux, i.e. the ion fractions which reflect electron capture and loss processes, show that these are not the same for incident anions and atoms. A strong difference for scattering along the (001) direction is observed, where at low incident energies a strong survival of incident ions occurs. These results are tentatively discussed in terms of non resonant electron capture at lattice O- sites and electron loss into the conduction band or by collisional detachment with bridging O atoms. (C) 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.