Published in J. Vac. Sci. Technol. B 16, 2242 (1998).

Reconstructions of GaN(0001) and (0001) Surfaces: Ga-rich Metallic Structures

A. R. Smith, R. M. Feenstra
Department of Physics, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 15213
D. W. Greve
Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 15213
M.-S. Shin, M. Skowronski
Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 15213
J. Neugebauer
Fritz-Haber-Institut der Max-Planck-Gesellschaft, Faradayweg 4-6, D-14195 Berlin, Germany
J. E. Northrup
Xerox Palo Alto Research Center, 3333 Coyote Hill Road, Palo Alto, California 94304

Abstract

Reconstructions of GaN(0001) and (0001) surfaces are studied by scanning tunneling microscopy and spectroscopy, by electron diffraction, by auger electron spectroscopy, and using first-principles theory. Attention is focused on Ga-rich reconstructions for each surface, which are found to have metallic character involving significant overlap between Ga valence electrons. The electron counting rule is thus violated for these surfaces, but they nonetheless form minimum energy structures.

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