The interactions between metal oxides and metal oxide,. supports have developed much interest since supported metal oxide catalysts are widely used in numerous industrial applications. We applied grazing angle reflection X-ray absorption fine structure (ReflEXAFS) to investigate the dispersed state of Cu species on the TiO2 thin film. This technique has not only the merit of the extended X-ray absorption fine structure (EXAFS) method but also high surface sensitivity. Analysis of the spectra can prove that the highly dispersed copper ions are coordinated to six oxygen atoms and located in the vacant octahedral site on the surface of titania film. (C) 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.