Scanning tunneling spectroscopy reveals a silicon dangling bond charge state transition

Abstract

We report the study of single dangling bonds (DB) on the hydrogen terminated silicon (100) surface using a low temperature scanning tunneling microscope (LT-STM). By investigating samples prepared with different annealing temperatures, we establish the critical role of subsurface arsenic dopants on the DB electronic properties. We show that when the near surface concentration of dopants is depleted as a result of $1250°C$ flash anneals, a single DB exhibits a sharp conduction step in its I(V) spectroscopy that is not due to a density of states effect but rather corresponds to a DB charge state transition. The voltage position of this transition is perfectly correlated with bias dependent changes in STM images of the DB at different charge states. Density functional theory (DFT) calculations further highlight the role of subsurface dopants on DB properties by showing the influence of the DB-dopant distance on the DB state. We discuss possible theoretical models of electronic transport through the DB that could account for our experimental observations.

21 pages, 6 figures

References in corpus (1)

• Electrical resistance: an atomistic view

Cited by in corpus (19)

• Binary Atomic Silicon Logic
• Atomic White-Out: Enabling Atomic Circuitry Through Mechanically Induced Bonding of Single Hydrogen Atoms to a Silicon Surface
• SiQAD: A Design and Simulation Tool for Atomic Silicon Quantum Dot Circuits
• Time-Resolved Single Dopant Charge Dynamics in Silicon
• Electrostatic Landscape of a H-Silicon Surface Probed by a Moveable Quantum Dot
• Time-Resolved Imaging of Negative Differential Resistance on the Atomic Scale
• Atomic defects of the hydrogen-terminated Silicon(100)-2x1 surface imaged with STM and nc-AFM
• Optimizing surface defects for atomic-scale electronics: Si dangling bonds
• Resolving and Tuning Carrier Capture Rates at a Single Silicon Atom Gap State
• Local removal of silicon layers on Si(100)-2x1 with chlorine-resist STM lithography
• Search for a Metallic Dangling-Bond Wire on $n$-doped H-passivated Semiconductor Surfaces
• Ionic Charge Distributions in Silicon Atomic Wires
• Dangling bonds on the Cl- and Br-terminated Si(100) surfaces
• Chlorine insertion and manipulation on the Si(100)-2x1-Cl surface in the regime of local supersaturation
• Scanned single-electron probe inside a silicon electronic device
• Hydrogen inserted into the Si(100)-2x1-H surface: A first-principles study
• Vacancy diffusion on a brominated Si(100) surface: Critical effect of the dangling bond charge state
• Enhancing the reactivity of Si(100)-Cl toward PBr3 by charging Si dangling bonds
• Transitions between positive and negative charge states of dangling bonds on a halogenated Si(100) surface