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  • Letter
  • Open Access

Role of doping in probe microscopies for the Si(111) 7×7 surface

Dingxin Fan

Yuki Sakai

James R. Chelikowsky

Daniel Meuer

Alfred J. Weymouth

Franz J. Giessibl

  • Department of Physics, McKetta Department of Chemical Engineering, Center for Computational Materials, Oden Institute for Computational Engineering and Sciences, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas 78712, USA

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Phys. Rev. Research 7, L012046 – Published 27 February, 2025

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevResearch.7.L012046

Abstract

We investigate a scanning probe microscopy image flickering phenomenon, i.e., distinct changes in intensity with the tip height, observed on a B-doped Si(111) 7×7 reconstructed surface. The phenomenon is exclusively observed in heavily doped systems owing to large variations in the adatom heights (∼0.5 a.u.) and the existence of bistable subunits upon doping as the probe tip approaches the surface. We find that B atoms prefer to reside in the surface layer, which is ∼1.1 eV more stable compared to interior layers. These dopant atoms exert a substantial influence on the structural integrity and electronic structure of the lattice.

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Phys. Rev. Research 7, L012046– Published 27 February, 2025
  • Received 19 December 2023
  • Revised 22 April 2024
  • Accepted 17 January 2025
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Published by the American Physical Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license. Further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the published article's title, journal citation, and DOI.

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