Surface stress measurement of Si(111) 7 × 7 reconstruction by comparison with hydrogen-terminated 1 × 1 surface

Abstract

We have focused on measurements of the surface stress in Si(111) as a function of 7×7 reconstruction by comparison with the hydrogen (H)-terminated Si(111) 1×1 surface. In order to obtain information on both the surface stress and the surface reconstruction simultaneously, we have combined the surface-curvature and the reflection-high-energy-electron-diffraction instrumentations in an identical ultrahigh vacuum system. The stress evolution shows a decrease of tensile stress corresponding to the formation of H-termination at the beginning of the atomic H exposure of Si(111) 7×7 surface. After the above treatment, a complete transformation of the surface structure occurs from the reconstructed surface to the 1×1 one. As a result, we find the H-terminated Si(111) 1×1 surface releases 1.7N/m (=J/m2), or (1.4eV/(1×1 unit cell)), of the surface energy from the strong tensile Si(111) 7×7 reconstruction.