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Structure and oscillatory multilayer relaxation of the bismuth (100) surface

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Published 11 June 2010 Published under licence by IOP Publishing Ltd
, , Citation J Sun et al 2010 New J. Phys. 12 063016 DOI 10.1088/1367-2630/12/6/063016

1367-2630/12/6/063016

Abstract

We present a combined experimental and theoretical study of the surface structure of single crystal Bi(100) via scanning tunneling microscopy (STM), low-energy electron diffraction intensity versus energy (LEED-IV) analysis and density functional theory (DFT). We find that the surface is unreconstructed and shows an unusually large oscillatory multilayer relaxation down to the sixth layer. This unexpected behavior will be explained by a novel mechanism related to the deeply penetrating electronic surface states. STM reveals wide (100) terraces, which are separated by two-layer high steps in which the shorter of the two interlayer spacings is terminating this surface, consistent with the LEED structural analysis and DFT.

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