Ma. Kulakov et al., MORPHOLOGY AND ATOMIC-STRUCTURE OF SIC(0001) SURFACES - A UHV STM STUDY, Materials science & engineering. B, Solid-state materials for advanced technology, 46(1-3), 1997, pp. 227-230
Scanning tunnelling microscopy (STM) in UHV has been used to study mor
phology and atomic structure of the (0001) surfaces of 6H and 4H silic
on carbide. After annealing under silicon flux at temperatures of 850-
1100 degrees C the surface always showed 3 x 3 reconstruction. Surplus
silicon atoms aggregate heteroepitaxially into islands. Upon further
annealing without silicon flux the surface structure exhibits many dif
ferent reconstructions and after about 15 min turns into root 3 x root
3R30 degrees. The shape of the SiC-islands and depressions on the sur
face displayed a common dependence on temperature. At lower temperatur
es they are rather rough. At higher temperatures they become more stra
ight and maximize directions with a minimum number of dangling bonds.
(C) 1997 Elsevier Science S.A.