Significant work function changes from bare Pt(111) surface to 1 monolayer and 2 monolayers of ultrathin iron oxide (FeO) films on it are investigated by means of scanning tunneling microscopy/spectroscopy (STMJSTS). With FeO layer-by-layer growth, a continuous reduction of the work function along with the surface vacuum level (VL) shifting is observed. We found that the compression of the electron spill-out at the metal-oxide interface and the substantial reconstruction of '2 ML FeO film, respectively, make major contributions to the first and the second reductions of the work function. The rectifying effect in FeO films is also observed, which is attributed to the downward shift of band alignment imposed by the total change in surface dipole. Our work shows that the polar oxide films play an important role to adjust surface electronic structures for enhancing device functionality. (C) 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.