Abstract
Polarization-dependent surface extended x-ray absorption fine-structure (SEXAFS) measurements on the O(2×1)/Cu(110) system show that every second [001] Cu row on the surface is missing, thus excluding the buckled-row model for the reconstruction. A SEXAFS amplitude comparison clearly favors the missing-row over the sawtooth model. It also provides evidence for a strong anisotropy of both the surface mean free path and the surface Debye-Waller factor.