Reconstructions of the sulfur-passivated InSb (100) surface

Abstract We have studied the properties of the InSb (100) surface passivated with sulfur dimers emitted by the solid-state electrochemical cell in ultra-high vacuum. Annealing the passivated surface in the temperature equal to T = 326 °C led to the formation of the c(4 × 8) surface reconstruction, while increasing the temperature to T = 348 °C resulted in the transition to c(4 × 12) reconstruction. To the best of our knowledge these reconstructions have not been reported to date and are characterized by the exceptionally good crystallographic order. XPS studies revealed that there are at least 4 different chemical species of sulfur present on the surface and the estimated thickness of the sulfur layers is equal to around 4 A. The surface reconstructions are characterized by the lowered intensity of the surface electronic states and resonances near the Fermi level, compared to the clean InSb surface, making them potentially very useful for the fabrication of InSb-based electronic and optoelectronic devices.