TY - JOUR
T1 - Order and disorder at the C-face of SiC
T2 - A hybrid surface reconstruction
AU - MacHado-Charry, Eduardo
AU - González, César
AU - Dappe, Yannick J.
AU - Magaud, Laurence
AU - Mousseau, Normand
AU - Pochet, Pascal
PY - 2020/4/6
Y1 - 2020/4/6
N2 - In this Letter, we explore the potential energy surface (PES) of the 3 × 3 C-face of SiC by means of the density functional theory. Following an extensive and intuitive exploration, we propose a model for this surface reconstruction based on an all-silicon over-layer forming an ordered honeycomb-Kagome network. This model is compared to the available scanning tunneling microscope (STM) topographies and conductance maps. Our STM simulations reproduce the three main characteristics observed in the measurements, revealing the underlying complex and hybrid passivation scheme. Indeed, below the ordered over-layer, the competition between two incompatible properties of silicon induces a strong disorder in the charge transfer between unpassivated dangling bonds of different chemistry. This effect in conjunction with the glassy-like character of the PES explains why it has taken decades to provide an accurate atomistic representation for this structure.
AB - In this Letter, we explore the potential energy surface (PES) of the 3 × 3 C-face of SiC by means of the density functional theory. Following an extensive and intuitive exploration, we propose a model for this surface reconstruction based on an all-silicon over-layer forming an ordered honeycomb-Kagome network. This model is compared to the available scanning tunneling microscope (STM) topographies and conductance maps. Our STM simulations reproduce the three main characteristics observed in the measurements, revealing the underlying complex and hybrid passivation scheme. Indeed, below the ordered over-layer, the competition between two incompatible properties of silicon induces a strong disorder in the charge transfer between unpassivated dangling bonds of different chemistry. This effect in conjunction with the glassy-like character of the PES explains why it has taken decades to provide an accurate atomistic representation for this structure.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85083323658&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1063/1.5143010
DO - 10.1063/1.5143010
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85083323658
SN - 0003-6951
VL - 116
JO - Applied Physics Letters
JF - Applied Physics Letters
IS - 14
M1 - 141605
ER -