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Abstract

There is a crucial role of the metal-oxide interface in determining the growth ofsilica thin films. However, only a few metallic substrates have been explored so far.In previous studies, metal substrates exhibiting unreconstructed surfaces under oxygenexposure have been analyzed. In this work, we study the structure of a silica thinfilm grown on Cu(111) and propose that a copper oxide film formed at the interfaceinhibits the appearance of defects and domain boundaries. Our results suggest that thesilica film structure has flexible connections with the copper oxide interlayer leadingto a lattice solely composed of six-membered rings. This honeycomb configuration iscertainly of importance in the design of well-defined two-dimensional oxide thin films onmetallic substrates as well as for catalysis applications involving metal-oxide interfaces.