Step structures and energies on monohydride-terminated vicinal Si(0 0 1) surfaces

Abstract

Scanning tunneling microscopy was used to determine the equilibrium step structures and step formation energies on monohydride-terminated silicon surfaces for the complete range of (0 0 1)-terrace-plus-step orientations, (0 0 1) to (1 1 4). Compared with the clean surfaces, hydrogen termination alters the atomic-scale step-edge structure and, in many cases, causes large-scale changes in the surface morphology. The structural modifications result directly from a change in the relative energies of the possible single- and double-layer step configurations. These results should prove useful for developing high-fidelity models of film growth and surface processing on silicon substrates in complex gaseous environments.