Vacancy at the Si(111) unreconstructed surface: Electron states and absence of the Jahn-Teller distortion

The electron states of a vacancy at the Si(111) surface are calculated by means of a tight-binding scheme. The results for a vacancy at the surface layer show one state of A_l symmetry below the surface dangling bond band, and another doubly degenerate state of E symmetry above it. The Fermi energy at an isolated vacancy remains fixed by the surface. This allows to derive two important consequences: i) The vacancy state is a neutral one as can be shown by integrating the local density of states up to the Fermi energy. ii) The electronic charge around the vacancy has got the whole surface point symmetry and therefore a Jahn-Teller effect is not induced.