A new structural model for the Si(331)-(12x1) reconstruction

Battaglia, Corsin; Gaal-Nagy, Katalin; Monney, Claude; Didiot, Clement; Schwier, Eike Fabian; Garnier, Michael Gunnar; Onida, Giovanni; Aebi, Philipp

A new structural model for the Si(331)-(12x1) reconstruction

Authors

Garnier, Michael Gunnar

Onida, Giovanni

Aebi, Philipp

Description

A new structural model for the Si(331)-(12x1) reconstruction is proposed. Based on scanning tunneling microscopy images of unprecedented resolution, low-energy electron diffraction data, and first-principles total-energy calculations, we demonstrate that the reconstructed Si(331) surface shares the same elementary building blocks as the Si(110)-(16x2) surface, establishing the pentamer as a universal building block for complex silicon surface reconstructions.