Extrinsic nature of point defects on the Si(001) surface: dissociated water molecules

Point defects on a Si(001)-(2 x 1) surface were examined by scanning tunneling microscopy and ab initio pseudopotential calculations. The residual water molecules in the ultrahigh vacuum chamber are found to be the sole origin of the type-C defects. Most of the apparent dimer vacancies in the filled-state images were found to show a distinct U-shaped triple-dimer footprint in the empty-state images, which also originate from water adsorption. These two defects were identified as a single dissociated water molecule forming Si-OH and Si-H bonds in the interdimer (type-C defect) and the on-dimer (dimer-vacancy-like or U-shape defect) configurations.