  High-quality and impurity-free magnetite surfaces with (sqrt2xsqrt2)R45o
reconstruction have been obtained for the Fe3O4(001) epitaxial films deposited
on Fe(001). Based on atomically resolved STM images for both negative and
positive sample polarity and Density Functional Theory calculations, a model of
the magnetite (001) surface terminated with Fe ions forming dimers on the
reconstructed (sqrt2xsqrt2)R45o octahedral iron layer is proposed.
