In this thesis two studies of reactive metal adsorption upon a low index single crystal silicon dioxide surface are presented in addition to a study of sulphur adsorption upon a low index single crystal nickel surface. Chromium growth upon the a-quartz Si02(0001) (J84xJ84) Rll 0 surface is studied at three coverages, 0.25±O.08 ML, 0.5±O.16 ML and 1.0±0.33 ML, using surface extended x-ray absorption fine structure (SEXAFS). SEXAFS measurements, from the chromium K-edge, recorded at both grazing and normal incidence show that chromium growth proceeds via the formation of mesoscopic particles with a body centred cubic (b.c.c.) like structure having an average nearest neighbour Cr-Cr distance of 2.36±O.03 A. This represents a contraction of 5.6 % from the bulk b.c.c. lattice spacing of 2.49 A. There is no evidence of a surface reaction between chromium and the surface oxygen. SEXAFS was used to study titanium reactional growth on a-quartz (0001) (J84xJ84) Rll 0 and (lx1). Three nominal coverages were studied, 0.25±O.08 ML, 0.5±O.16 ML and 1.0±O.33 ML. Both normal and grazing incidence SEXAFS data were recorded and show the formation of a spatially extensive region in which an interfacial reaction has occurred between surface oxygen and adsorbate titanium atoms. Coupled with this is the formation of subnanometre titanium clusters. The metal oxide has nearest neighbour Ti-O distances close to those of both the anatase and rutile forms of titania with the metallic titanium clusters having a Ti-Ti distance within experimental error that of bulk hexagonal close packed (h.c.p.) titanium, 2.89 A. A re-examination of the surface geometry of Ni(1l0)c(2x2)S using SEXAFS has been performed. Data out to an electron wavevector of 9 A-I are analysed with a new code to assess the influence of multiple scattering. The first shell S-Ni distance is determined to be 2.20±O.02 A with the next nearest neighbour distance being 2.29±O.02 A, giving a top-layer Ni expansion of 14±3% relative to the bulk. The influence of multiple scattering does not significantly alter these values from earlier studies.