Structure of the SiC (0 0 0 1) 3 × 3 reconstruction studied by surface X-ray diffraction

Abstract The surface structure of the 3 × 3 reconstruction of the 4H-SiC (0 0 0 1) surface was investigated with surface X-ray diffraction (SXRD). Of the studied models, the twist model proposed by Starke et al. [U. Starke, J. Schardt, J. Bernhardt, M. Franke, K. Reuter, H. Wedler, K. Heinz, J. Furthmuller, P. Kackell, F. Bechstedt, Phys. Rev. Lett. 80 (1998) 758] gave the best fit to the experimental data. The structural parameters were determined accurately.