Novel surface cleaning technique with chemical etching for ideal hydrogen termination: Surface chemistry and morphology of the silcon(111) and silicon(100) surfaces

Surface infrared spectroscopy has been utilized to characterize hydrogen-terminated Si(111) and Si(100) surfaces prepared by wet chemical etching. An ideally monohydride-terminated (atomically flat) Si(111) surface is obtained with a pH-enhanced buffered HF solution (a mixture of BHF (6:1 NH;White surface deposits are seen to form in highly basic etching solutions which contain NH;In situ FTIR-Emission Spectroscopy is found to be useful in monitoring Si-H vibrational spectral features during hydrogen desorption from hydrogen-terminated silicon surfaces produced with wet chemical etching and low temperature substrate surface oxidation.