Abstract
Passivation of semiconductor surfaces against chemical attack can be achieved by terminating the surface-dangling bonds with a monovalent atom such as hydrogen. Such passivation invariably leads to the removal of all surface states in the bandgap, and thus to the termination of non-metallic surfaces. Here we report the first observation of semiconductor surface metallization induced by atomic hydrogen. This result, established by using photo-electron and photo-absorption spectroscopies and scanning tunnelling techniques, is achieved on a Si-terminated cubic silicon carbide (SiC) surface. It results from competition between hydrogen termination of surface-dangling bonds and hydrogen-generated steric hindrance below the surface. Understanding the ingredient for hydrogen-stabilized metallization directly impacts the ability to eliminate electronic defects at semiconductor interfaces critical for microelectronics, provides a means to develop electrical contacts on high-bandgap chemically passive materials, particularly for interfacing with biological systems, and gives control of surfaces for lubrication, for example of nanomechanical devices.
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Acknowledgements
The authors are grateful to W.L. Brown for his leadership of the IRAS work done at Agere Systems and many discussions, to V. Yu. Aristov, N.P. Pham, N. Rodriguez and S. Saada for their support of the STM/STS and photo-emission work done at CEA-Saclay and Elettra (Trieste), to G. Galli and S. Laetitia for discussions, to C. Ottaviani and M. Pedio for assistance in the synchrotron radiation experiments done at Elettra (Trieste), to T. Billon, L. di Cioccio and C. Pudda (CEA-LETI), and A. Lescuras (CNRS-CHREA) for providing single-domain β-SiC(100) samples.
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Movie showing the different steps of the interaction of hydrogen atoms with the β-SiC(100) 3x2 surface
1) Hydrogen atoms decorating the Si dangling bonds of the topmost surface (GIF 291 kb)
Subsequently, Si-Si dimers in the first plan becoming symmetric
2)The hydrogen atoms then breaks the Si-Si dimers in the 3rd atomic layer below the surface (located just above the 1st carbon plane) resulting in the formation of 2 dangling bonds
3) H atom decorating one of these dangling bond but, due to steric conditions and lack of space, unable to decorate the second one
4) This results in a charge transfer into the underlying plane leading to Metallisation.
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Derycke, V., Soukiassian, P., Amy, F. et al. Nanochemistry at the atomic scale revealed in hydrogen-induced semiconductor surface metallization. Nature Mater 2, 253–258 (2003). https://doi.org/10.1038/nmat835
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nmat835
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