The well-annealed and quenched Si(105), (104), (103) and (319) surfaces were studied with low-energy electron diffraction and scanning tunnelling microscopy, and it turns out that the morphology and reconstruction of all these surfaces exhibited a rich temperature dependence, especially for Si(105). A technique based upon low-energy electron diffraction pattern analysis was developed, which could tell if the unit cell of a stable surface consisted of nanofacets of other (major) stable surfaces, to discriminate minor from major stable surfaces. By means of this technique, Si(105) and (103) were disclosed to be minor stable surfaces and belong to the (001) family, and their unit cell structures as well as the step configurations of many reconstructions observed here were mapped out without invoking models. The rarely seen temperature dependent step configurations of Si(105) were interpreted as a result of the interplay of the entropic repulsive, short-range attractive, and long-range repulsive step–step interactions. The fact that Si(103) belongs to the (001) family whereas Ge(103) belongs to the (113) family was attributed to the difference between the surface structure of Ge(113)-(3 x 2) and that of the Si(113)-(3 x 2).

Nanofaceting of Unit Cells and Temperature Dependence of the Surface Reconstruction and Morphology of Si(105) and (103). R.G.Zhao, Z.Gai, W.Li, J.Jiang, Y.Fujikawa, T.Sakurai, W.S.Yang: Surface Science, 2002, 517[1-3], 98-114