Field-ion scanning tunneling microscopy study of the atomic structure of 6H–SiC(0001) surfaces cleaned by in situ Si molecular beam etching

Publisher Website
Google Scholar
Abstract
Field ion‐scanning tunneling microscopy has been used to study 6H–SiC(0001) surfaces with Si adlayers on the Si‐terminated surface, formed by in situ Si molecular beam etching at 950 °C. The as‐cleaned surface showed a (∛×∛) reconstruction. The (2×3), (2∛×6√6), and (3×3) phases were formed by evaporating Si on this clean 6H–SiC(0001)‐(∛×∛) surface. A Si(111) film 6 monolayers thick was also epitaxially grown on the 6H–SiC(0001)‐(∛×∛) surface at 800 °C, and the surface exhibited the Si(111)–(7×7) reconstruction. A surface vacancy model for the (∛×∛) reconstruction is proposed, and a possible application of utilizing the various surface reconstructions to control the growth of different polytypes of SiC on the 6H–SiC substrate is discussed.