Atomic configuration dependent secondary electron emission from reconstructed silicon surfaces

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Abstract
We show that domains of reconstructed silicon surfaces can be imaged by secondary electrons (SEs) using an ultrahigh vacuum scanning electron microscope with a SE detector having angular resolvability. The SE images clearly show the double domain structure, alternate 2×1 and 1×2 domains on Si(100), as well as the coexistence of the reconstructed 7×7 domains and the nonreconstructed 1×1 domains on Si(111). These results demonstrate that SE emission is sensitive to the atomic configuration of the topmost layers. We call this scanning electron microscopy based technique for top layer imaging as scanning electron surface microscopy, which will evolve into a useful tool for surface characterization.