FORMATION OF THE BETA-SIC C(2X2) RECONSTRUCTED SURFACE

Self-consistent electronic structure, total energy MNDO/PM3 calculations modeling the beta-SiC(100) surface are used to study energetics of the c(2 x 2) surface reconstruction. It is shown that although the resulting atomic configurations in the ordered reconstructed surfaces prepared by different methods are not strongly dependent on the method of surface preparation, the types and the densities of the prevailing surface defects most probably are. Implications of this result for the outcome of some surface structure sensitive experiments are then briefly discussed.