Reducible oxides as ultrathin epitaxial films

This chapter reviews and discusses recent work on two-dimensional films of reducible oxides supported on metal substrates. In general, peculiar chemical and structural phases, different from the bulk ones, can be stabilized depending on the oxygen chemical potential, on kinetic processes and on the specific substrate used. A peculiarity of reducible oxides is that the observed phases can often be reversibly transformed one into the other by applying reducing and oxidizing treatments.