Reflectance anisotropy spectroscopy (RAS) is employed to follow the initial
room temperature growth of Ge dimer layers on clean vicinal Si(001)-(1 x 2
). The experimental data shows structure in the region of 2.4 eV which chan
ges sign depending on Ge dimer orientation. Comparison with microscopic cal
culations for one monolayer and two monolayer Ge coverages reveals excellen
t agreement with experiment, demonstrating that surface states localised on
Ge dimers are responsible for the RA response in the region of 2.4 eV. Thi
s provides the first clear and unambiguous proof that RAS can be sensitive
to dimer orientation. The origin of RA growth oscillations, their relations
hip to dimer orientation, and variation with monitoring energy are definiti
vely explained for the Ge/Si(001) system. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science B.V. Al
l rights reserved.