Direct Observation of Atomic Step‐Assisted Stabilization of Polar Surfaces (Adv. Mater. 40/2023)

Polar Oxide Surfaces In article number 2303051, Jaekwang Lee, Sang Ho Oh, and co-workers discover a hitherto unknown stabilization mechanism of polar oxide surfaces using in situ atomic-scale electron microscopy combined with atomic simulation. The dynamic motion of atomic steps, activated at a high temperature, converts the LaAlO3 (001) polar surface to a nonpolar (015) vicinal surface via a step reconstruction involving cation vacancy formation, which completely cancels the electric fields along all radial directions.