Reflection high-energy electron diffraction and scanning tunneling microscopy study of InP„001... surface reconstructions

The reconstructions of the InP~001! surface prepared by molecular beam epitaxy have been studied with in situ reflection high-energy electron diffraction ~RHEED! and scanning tunneling microscopy ~STM!. The growth chamber contains a highly accurate temperature measurement system and uses a solid-source, cracked phosphorus, valved effusion cell. Five InP~001! reconstructions are observed with RHEED by analyzing patterns in three principal directions. Under a fixed P2 flux, decreasing the substrate temperature gives the following reconstructions: c(238), (234), (231), (232), and c(434). In situ STM images reveal that only two of these reconstructions yields long-range periodicity in real space. InP~001! does not form the metal rich (432) reconstruction, which is surprising because the (432) reconstruction has been coined the universal surface reconstruction since all III–V~001! surfaces were thought to favor its formation. © 2000 American Vacuum Society. @S0734-2101~00!05904-2#