Step structures and energies on monahydride-terminated vicinal Si(001) surfaces

Scanning tunneling microscopy was used to determine the equilibrium step st ructures and step formation energies on monohydride-terminated silicon surf aces for the complete range of (001)-terrace-plus-step orientations. (001) to (114). Compared with the clean surfaces, hydrogen termination alters the atomic-scale step-edge structure and, in many cases, causes large-scale ch anges in the surface morphology. The structural modifications result direct ly from a change in the relative energies of the possible single- and doubl e-layer step configurations. These results should prove useful for developi ng high-fidelity models of film growth and surface processing on silicon su bstrates in complex gaseous environments. (C) 2001 Published by Elsevier Sc ience B.V.