Investigation of Ti Interstitials in Slightly Reduced Rutile (TiO₂) by Means of Channeling Method

To investigate the defect structures of slightly reduced rutile (TiO 2 ) channeling experiments were performed on a slightly reduced specimen and a stoichiometric one with about 6 MeV protons accelerated by a cyclotron. In an angular scan of the backscattering yield of protons from Ti ions with respect to the [001] axial channel, a peak along the [001] direction was observed only in the reduced specimen. By the analysis of the angular scan it was confirmed that main defects in a slightly reduced rutile are Ti interstitial ions. They are located within about 0.4Å of the [001] mid-channel axis. This result supports the interpretation of EPR experiments that a so-called C -center is a Ti interstitial ton.