Formation of a silicon terminated (100) diamond surface

We report the preparation of an ordered silicon terminated diamond (100) surface with a two domain 3 × 1 reconstruction as determined by low energy electron diffraction. Based on the dimensions of the surface unit cell and on chemical information provided by core level photoemission spectra, a model for the structure is proposed. The termination should provide a homogeneous, nuclear, and electron spin-free surface for the development of future near-surface diamond quantum device architectures.