Driving Force Behind the O-Rh(001) Clock Reconstruction
A novel rhombi-chain network is derived from low energy electron diffraction experimental observations and the recent model theory, revealing that the O-Rh(100) clock-rotation is driven by an electrostatic force arisen from bond formation. Thus the O-Rh bond suffers from tension other than compression, or strain relief. As O -1 evolves into the hybridized- O -2,a Rh 5 O cluster in the c(2 × 2) phase develops into a Rh 4 O tetrahedron and yields the overall (2 × 2)p4g reconstruction. In the (2 × 2)p4g phase, the hollow-sited O -2 defines one Rh + ion and two lone-pair-induced Rh dipoles of its four surface neighbors. The surface atomic ratio (O : Rh = 1 : 2) allocates, therefore, half of the surface Rh atoms to be the Rh dipoles and another half to play dual roles of Rh + ion and Rh dipole. Interactions along the "dipole–dipole – Rh +/dipole – Rh +/dipole" strings create the rhombi-chain at the <11> directions, and a responding bond tension confines the (2 × 2)p4g clock rotation.