Unraveling the Inner Electronic Structure of Chromium-Oxide Films by Probing the Layer-by-Layer Evolution of Their Workfunction.

ABSTRACT: Low-temperature tunneling spectroscopy has been employed to probe the workfunction ϕ of atomically flat Cr-oxide single- and double-stack films grown on Pt(111). While the single-stack Cr₃O₆ trilayer has a ϕ value of ∼7.0 eV, it decreases to ∼5.0 eV for a Cr₆O₁₁ double-stack. The charge redistribution underlying this workfunction drop has been analyzed by density functional theory. The remarkably high ϕ value of the Cr₃O₆/Pt trilayer, making it a highly electronegative substrate, originates from a massive electron transfer from the Pt(111) into empty Cr-states that reduces 2/3 of the oxide cations from their formal 4+ to a 3+ charge state. The negative surface dipole diminishes upon growing a Cr-O honeycomb layer on top of t

SUBMITTER: Missaoui G 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12278308 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature