Surface and Step Conductivities on Si(111) Surfaces

TL;DR

This study uses advanced four-point STM measurements and analytical modeling to quantify surface and step conductivities on Si(111) surfaces, revealing how surface termination affects conductance.

Contribution

It introduces a combined experimental and analytical approach to distinguish surface and step conductivities on Si(111) surfaces, including effects of surface termination and atomic steps.

Findings

Surface conductivity of Si(111)-(7x7) surface measured as (9 ± 2) x 10^{-6} Ω^{-1}/□.

Atomic step conductivity determined as (29 ± 9) Ω^{-1}m^{-1}.

Method effectively separates surface and step contributions to conductance.

Abstract

Four-point measurements using a multi-tip scanning tunneling microscope (STM) are carried out in order to determine surface and step conductivities on Si(111) surfaces. In a first step, distance-dependent four-point measurements in the linear configuration are used in combination with an analytical three-layer model for charge transport to disentangle the 2D surface conductivity from non-surface contributions. A termination of the Si(111) surface with either Bi or H results in the two limiting cases of a pure 2D or 3D conductance, respectively. In order to further disentangle the surface conductivity of the step-free surface from the contribution due to atomic steps, a square four-probe configuration is applied as function of the rotation angle. In total this combined approach leads to an atomic step conductivity of $\sigma_\mathrm{step} = (29 \pm 9)$ $\mathrm{\Omega}^{-1} \mathrm{m}^{-1}$ and to a step-free surface conductivity of $\sigma_\mathrm{surf} = (9 \pm 2) \cdot 10^{-6}\,\mathrm{\Omega}^{-1}/\square$ for the Si(111)-(7$\times$7) surface.