Scanning tunneling microscopy of silicon(100) 2 x 1

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https://hdl.handle.net/2142/22687

Author(s)

Hubacek, Jerome S.

Issue Date

1992

Doctoral Committee Chair(s)

Lyding, Joseph W.

Department of Study

Electrical and Computer Engineering

Discipline

Electrical and Computer Engineering

Degree Granting Institution

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Degree Name

Ph.D.

Degree Level

Dissertation

Keyword(s)

Language

eng

Abstract

The Si(100) 2 x 1 surface, a technologically important surface in microelectronics and silicon molecular beam epitaxy (MBE), has been studied with the scanning tunneling microscope (STM) to attempt to clear up the controversy that surrounds previous studies of this surface. To this end, an ultra-high vacuum (UHV) STM/surface science system has been designed and constructed to study semiconductor surfaces. Clean Si(100) 2 x 1 surfaces have been prepared and imaged with the STM. Atomic resolution images probing both the filled states and empty states indicate that the surface consists of statically buckled dimer rows.
With electronic device dimensions shrinking to smaller and smaller sizes, the Si-SiO$\sb2$ interface is becoming increasingly important and, although it is the most popular interface used in the microelectronics industry, little is known about the initial stages of oxidation of the Si(100) surface. Scanning tunneling microscopy has been employed to examine Si(100) 2 x 1 surfaces exposed to molecular oxygen in UHV. Ordered rows of bright and dark spots, rotated 45$\sp\circ$ from the silicon dimer rows, appear in the STM images, suggesting that the Si(100)-SiO$\sb2$ interface may be explained with a $\beta$-cristobalite(100) structure rotated by 45$\sp\circ$ on the Si(100) surface.

Type of Resource

text

Permalink

http://hdl.handle.net/2142/22687

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Graduate Theses and Dissertations at Illinois

Dissertations and Theses in Electrical and Computer Engineering