AVS 49th International Symposium
    Surface Science Tuesday Sessions
       Session SS-TuP

Paper SS-TuP15
Structure of Stable Si(6 9 17) Facet on Si(5 5 12)

Tuesday, November 5, 2002, 5:30 pm, Room Exhibit Hall B2

Session: Surface Science Poster Session
Presenter: J.M. Seo, Chonbuk National University, Korea
Authors: Y.Z. Zhu, Chonbuk National University, Korea
S.H. Cho, Chonbuk National University, Korea
W.X. Quan, Chonbuk National University, Korea
J.M. Seo, Chonbuk National University, Korea
Correspondent: Click to Email
Up to now, it has been known that the stable facet parallel to the atomic row of Si(5 5 12) is Si(113). In the recent structural studies on Si(5 5 12) using STM, it has been found that there exists another stable facet, Si(6 9 17), whose azimuthal angle is 97 degree-off from the atomic row and polar angle is 6.2 degree-off from Si(5 5 12). As this (6 9 17) facet appears at differently inclined surfaces, it is not simply due to miscutting. Although Si(6 9 17) facet is nearly vertical to the atomic row, it consist of 1.92 nm wide (337) terraces and single (011) steps, of 0.195 nm height, connecting such narrow (337) terraces. The unit cell of (6 9 17) contains a pair of tetramers and @pi@-7 chain which is quite similar to those of (337) subsections composing of Si(5 5 12). As the (6 9 17) facet is always accompanied by defects like grain boundaries, it can adapt smoothly-bending facets as well as straight facets. It can be concluded that it is essential to form such flexible (6 9 17) facets in combination with straight (113) facets in order to relieve the local strain with various directions.