Absence of the Rashba Splitting of Au(111) Surface Bands

The electronic structure of Au(111) films is studied by means of relativistic DFT calculations. It is found that the twinning of the surface bands, observed in photoemission experiment, does not necessarily correspond to the spin-splitting of the surface states caused by the break of the inversion symmetry at the surface. The twinning of the bands of clean Au(111) films can be obtained within nonrelativistic or scalar-relativistic approximation, so that it is not a result of spin-orbit coupling. However, the spin-orbit coupling does not lead to the spin-splitting of the surface bands. This result is explained by Kramers’ degeneracy, which means that the existence of a surface itself does not destroy the inversion symmetry of the system. The inversion symmetry of the Au(111) film can be broken, for example, by means of adsorption, and a hydrogen monolayer deposited on one face of the film indeed leads to the appearance of the spin-splitting of the bands.

The Band Offsets of Isomeric Boron Carbide Overlayers

ABSTRACTSemiconducting boron carbide overlayers, formed from the decomposition of orthocarborane and metacarborane have been studied by angle resolved photoemission. The incurrence of surface photovoltage and the photovoltaic process, from the photoemission experiment, reveal band offsets in the orthocarborane multilayer configurations that are invereted relative to single layer configurations. Defect induced gap states which trap charge at the heterostructure interface is used as one explanation of these results. The role of defects is also used to help illuminate why opposite semiconducting type materials are formed from the decomposition of isomer carborane molecules.

A Soft X-Ray Photoemission Study of the Chemisorption and Reaction of Diethylsilane on SI(100)

ABSTRACTSoft x-ray synchrotron radiation has been utilized as the excitation source in a high-resolution photoemission experiment designed to investigate the chemisorption and subsequent reaction of diethylsilane on the technologically important Si(100) surface. We have found that diethylsilane chemisorbs dissociatively to form Si-CH2CH3 surface species on Si(100) following a room temperature exposure. These species are identified by two very sharp peaks observed in the valence band spectra positioned at 17.9 and 14.3 eV binding energy. In addition, C Is core level spectra, measured following exposures of Si(100) substrates as a function of surface temperature, show that carbon, in some form, exists on the Si surface following exposures at every temperature from room temperature to about 600°C. While only -CH2CH3 ethyl groups are observed on the surface at room temperature, these species appear to partially dehydrogenate at 300°C, producing a mixture of -CH2CH3 groups and other intermediate carbonaceous species. At a growth temperature of about 400°C the intermixing of elemental carbon with Si begins. At higher temperatures, we observe the continued degradation of diethylsilane to produce a Si + C alloy on the surface at 600°C. Our results indicate that diethylsilane has potential as a molecular precursor for SiC formation by chemical vapor deposition techniques.