Electronic and atomic structure of the surface

The (1 over(1, ¯) 0 2) orientated plane of hexagonal silicon carbide of the 4H polytype consists of a periodic arrangement of stripes with alternating bond configuration on a nanometer scale. The two stripe configurations of the bulk truncated surface have an atomic structure very close to the carbon-face SiC basal plane and the cubic SiC(1 0 0) surface, respectively. The structural and electronic properties of the c(2 × 2) reconstruction on the 4 H-SiC (1 over(1, ¯) 0 2) surface were investigated using photoemission spectroscopy (PES), scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) and low-energy electron diffraction (LEED). The core level photoemission spectra reveal two surface shifted Si2p components and one shifted C1s component in addition to the SiC bulk peaks. In accordance with the periodicity observed in LEED, atomically resolved STM micrographs show a c(2 × 2) arrangement of bright features which are accounted as Si adatoms. The electronic structure of this SiC (1 over(1, ¯) 0 2) -c (2 × 2) phase is experimentally determined by angle resolved PES studies of the valence band revealing four surface states. Based on the experimental observations and a comparison to similar phases on other SiC surfaces, a tentative surface model can be developed which consists of Si adatoms in so-called H3 sites on the basal-plane type stripes and carbon dimers in Si bridging configuration on the cubic stripes of the bulk truncated surface. © 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.