Search

A lot of work has been carried out to prepare chemically homogeneous (1 0 0) silicon surfaces. The hydrogen-terminated (1 0 0) silicon surfaces are the most promising ones, especially in view of their remarkable environmental stability. The simplest way to produce hydrogen-terminated surfaces (attack in water solution of HF of a sacrificial, thermally grown, oxide) results in strongly heterogeneous rough surfaces (although with prevailing dihydride terminations). These surfaces can, however, be flattened and homogenized by treating them in H 2 at high temperature ( > 850 ° C). The morphological and chemical changes undergone by the surface during the treatment are studied X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, atomic force microscopy, scanning tunnelling microscopy, infrared absorption spectroscopy in the attenuated total reflection mode, reflection high energy electron diffraction and thermal programmed desorption, and the mechanisms responsible for them are discussed.

An experimental study via X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy at different takeoff angles of the derivatization of atomically flat, hydrogen terminated, 1 × 1 (1 0 0) Si surfaces with 1-octyne is reported. The major conclusion of the experimental analysis (that a large fraction of the grafted moieties contain unreacted π bonds) is then compared with the results of high-level ab initio modelling with model molecules of the derivatization act.