Low-energy electron diffraction from Si(111)-2×1: theory and experiment

Abstract

A dynamical theory of low-energy electron diffraction (LEED) is applied to the determination of the geometry of the 2*1-reconstructed (111) surface of silicon from experimental LEED intensity versus energy profiles. The top layer is 'buckled' by 0.30 AA, while the second layer shows a slight pairing between adjacent rows. The two topmost interlayer spacings are contracted by 10 and 3.5%, respectively, compared with the bulk values.