Uneven Oxidation and Surface Reconstructions on Stepped Cu(100) and Cu(110)

How defects such as surface steps affect oxidation, especially initial oxide formation, is critical for nano-oxide applications in catalysis, electronics, and corrosion. We posit that surface reconstruction, a crucial intermediate oxidation step, can highlight initial oxide formation preferences and thus enable bridging the temporal and spatial scale gaps between atomistic simulations and experiments. We investigate the surface-step-induced uneven surface oxidation on Cu(100) and Cu(110), using atomic-scale in situ environmental transmission electron microscopy experiments with dynamical gas control and advanced data processing. We show that the Cu(100)-O (2√2 × √2)R45° missing row reconstruction strongly favors upper terraces over lower terraces, while Cu(110)-O (2 × 1) “added row” reconstructions indicate slight preferences for upper or lower terraces, depending on oxygen concentration. The observed formation site preference and its variation with surface orientation and oxygen concentration are mechanistically explained by Ehrlich–Schwöbel barrier differences for oxygen diffusion on stepped surfaces.