Passivation of hexagonal SiC surfaces by hydrogen termination

Surface hydrogenation is a well established technique in silicon technology. It is easily accomplished by wet-chemical procedures and results in clean and unreconstructed surfaces, which are extremely low in charged surface states and stable against oxidation in air, thus constituting an ideal surface preparation. As a consequence, methods for hydrogenation have been sought for preparing silicon carbide (SiC) surfaces with similar well defined properties. It was soon recognized, however, that due to different surface chemistry new ground had to be broken in order to find a method leading to the desired monatomic hydrogen saturation. In this paper the results of H passivation of SiC surfaces by high-temperature hydrogen annealing will be discussed, thereby placing emphasis on chemical, structural and electronic properties of the resulting surfaces. In addition to their unique properties, hydrogenated hexagonal SiC{0001} surfaces offer the interesting possibility of gaining insight into the formation of silicon-and carbon-rich reconstructions as well. This is due to the fact that to date hydrogenation is the only method providing oxygen-free surfaces with a C to Si ratio of 1: 1. Last but not least, the electronic properties of hydrogen-free SiC{0001} surfaces will be alluded to. SiC{0001} surfaces are the only known semiconductor surfaces that can be prepared in their unreconstructed (1 x 1) state with one dangling bond per unit cell by photon induced hydrogen desorption. These surfaces give indications of a Mott-Hubbard surface band structure.