Published online by Cambridge University Press: 21 February 2011
A new surface cleaning method for Si MBE is described in which the Si surface is exposed to Ge beams while the substrate is kept at certain temperature. It has been proved that the thin passivation layer of SiO2 on the Si substrate will react with Ge at a relatively low temperature (620°C), and the products are volatile. The residual Ge on Si substrate can be reduced to less than 0.1 monolayer (ML). Ge beam treatment turns out to be an effective low temperature technique for preparing Si substrate, especially for the heteroepitaxial growth of GexSi1-x/Si.