Thin ceria films supported by metal substrates represent important model systems for reactivity studies in heterogeneous catalysis. Here we report the growth study of the polar CeO2(1 0 0) phase as part of a mixed CeO2(1 1 1)-CeO2(1 0 0) thin film supported by Cu(1 11). The two ceria phases grow on different areas of the substrate, what allows a reliable growth characterization of the CeO2(1 0 0) islands on Cu(1 1 1). Scanning tunneling microscopy measurements reveal CeO2(1 0 0) to grow in the form of highly dispersed three dimensional (3D) islands on a CeO2(1 0 0) interfacial layer. The CeO2(1 0 0) islands exhibit a 2 x 2 surface reconstruction. The presence of the surface reconstruction together with the highly dispersed growth of CeO2(1 0 0) islands corresponds to the requirement for compensation of the surface dipole moment on the CeO2 (1 00). CeO2 (1 0 0) islands are further characterized by reflection high energy electron diffraction yielding their epitaxial relations with respect to the Cu( 1 1 1) substrate. The growth of well characterized CeO2( 1 0 0) islands supported by Cu(1 1 1) represents a starting point for developing a novel template for structure-related reactivity studies of ceria based model catalysts. (C) 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.