Abstract
The 2×1 reconstructions observed with cleaved {111} surfaces of silicon and germanium are not stable but convert irreversibly to the Si(111)–7 × 7 and Ge(111)–c(2 × 8) structures, respectively, at elevated temperatures. At even higher temperatures, a now reversible phase transition to a “1 × 1” structure occurs. For both silicon and germanium {111} surfaces, the “1 × 1” structures consist of a quarter monolayer of disordered adatoms. During conversions of Ge(111)–c(2 × 8) surfaces, the adatoms already present only become disordered while on Si(111) surfaces corner holes and dimers as well as stacking faults have to be removed during 7×7 → “1×1” transitions. The existence of adatoms on Si(111)–”1 × 1” surfaces is attributed only to the decreased elastic constants at high temperatures. Then the lowering of the band-structure energy by a reduction of the density of adatoms by a factor of 2 compared with a factor of 2.6 for the 7×7 reconstruction obviously suffices to overcompensate the strain energy associated with the existence of adatoms only.
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© 2001 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg
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Mönch, W. (2001). Phase Transitions on Silicon and Germanium {111} Surfaces. In: Semiconductor Surfaces and Interfaces. Springer Series in Surface Sciences, vol 26. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-04459-9_12
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-04459-9_12
Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg
Print ISBN: 978-3-642-08748-6
Online ISBN: 978-3-662-04459-9
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