Defect sites can interfere with the stability of metal oxide surfaces, so it is important to locate and determine methods to control these sites. Oxides exhibit an abundance of point defect sites. In rocksalt surfaces, oxygen and metal cation vacancies are the most common point defects. The vacancies are produced by electron bombardment and annealing to extremely high temperatures. However, oxygen vacancies are more common and have a greater impact than metal cation vacancies. Oxygen vacancies cause reduction in between surface cations, which significantly affect the electronic energy levels. Steps and kinks are two other defects that impact rocksalt surfaces. These structural defects reduce the coordination environment of the four adjacent surface cations from 5 to 4. 
In rutile surfaces, the most common type of defect is oxygen vacancies. There are two types of oxygen vacancies, which result from either the removal of a bridging O ions or the removal of an inplane O ion. Both of these will reduce the coordination of the surface cations.