A study was made of the electronic band structure of the β-SiC(001)c(4 x 2) surface reconstruction by using combined angle-resolved ultra-violet photo-emission spectroscopy experiments and first-principles electronic structure calculations. The experimental and theoretical dispersion curves were found to be in good agreement. Four occupied electronic surface states were found along the 2 high-symmetry directions (¯¯¯Γ- J̅ and ¯Γ - ¯Y - ¯J) of the surface Brillouin zone. The surface state located around ≈1.5eV below the Fermi level exhibited a strong dispersion along the ¯Γ - J̅ direction and a weak dispersion along ¯Γ - ¯Y - ¯J. A weak coupling was found between up- and down-dimers belonging to 2 different adjacent dimer rows. The electronic structure was considered within the context of the available real-space models for the c(4 x 2) reconstruction. The experimental band structure was inconsistent with a model of missing rows of asymmetrical dimers while being in reasonable agreement with the alternately up- and down-dimer model of the β-SiC(001)c(4 x 2) surface reconstruction.

Experimental and Theoretical Electronic Structure Determination of the β-SiC(001)c(4 x 2) Surface Reconstruction. V.Y.Aristov, P.Soukiassian, A.Catellani, R.Di Felice, G.Galli: Physical Review B, 2004, 69[24], 245326 (9pp)