Structure and electronic states of Pt/SrTiO3 (001) interface using X-ray standing wave excited photoelectron emission

In this work, we focus on Pt/SrTiO3 heterostructure to discover the interfacial interaction between metal catalysts and metal oxide supports. Pt nano single crystals were grown on a SrTiO3 (001) substrate using pulsed laser deposition. The Pt/SrTiO3 heterostructure was characterized using X-ray standing wave (XSW) excited photoelectron emission collected in the Bragg back-reflection geometry at beamline I09 of the Diamond Light Source. Different electronic core levels of Pt 4f, 4d, 3d were collected, which showed differences in their responses to the XSW excitation. O 1s, Ti 2p, and Sr 3d core levels were also collected to understand the interfacial interaction between Pt and SrTiO3. Focusing on Pt 4f, O 1s, Ti 2p, and Sr 3d, three symmetry inequivalent hkl Bragg peaks were measured to produce 3D interfacial atomic maps for each species via Fourier inversion. Among other things, these results should be beneficial for the design of oxide supported catalysts.