Preparation of clean and well-ordered hydrogen-terminated Si(110)-(1×1) surfaces and the measurements of vibrational modes

We propose electrochemical and wet chemical processes to prepare the clean and well-ordered hydrogen-terminated Si(110)-(1 x 1) surfaces, with our evaluation by low-energy electron-diffraction (LEED), high-resolution electron-energy-loss spectroscopy (HREELS) and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). Clear (1 x 1) LEED patterns indicated the two-dimensional space group of p2mg. The intrinsic Si H bending and stretching modes and surface phonon modes, as well as hydrocarbon impurities were observed by HREELS. Among the procedures tested, the electrochemical etching in a NH4F solution yielded the best ordered surface. The wet chemical etching produced the clean samples suitable for HREELS measurements. (C) 2012 Elsevier B. V. All rights reserved.