Double diffraction spots in RHEED patterns from clean Ge(111) and Si(001) surfaces

In RHEED patterns from clean Ge(111) and Si(001) surfaces, extra diffraction spots have been observed with superlattice reflection spots due to Ge(111) 2 × 8 and Si(001) 2 × 1 surface structures. The extra spots have not been found out in many previous LEED and RHEED patterns of clean Ge(111) and Si(001) surfaces. When the Ge(111) and Si(001) samples were rotated about an axis normal to the surfaces so as to vary the incident direction of the primary electron beam, the intensity of the extra spots showed a remarkable dependence upon the incident direction and they became invisible in some incident directions, in spite of the experimental condition that an Ewald sphere intersected reciprocal lattice rods of the extra spots. In this study, the extra spots are understood as forbidden reflection spots resulting from double diffraction of superlattice reflections of the surface structures, and the remarkable dependence of their intensity upon the incident direction is explained in terms of excitation of the surface wave of the superlattice reflections. These results suggest that the intensity of diffraction spots in RHEED patterns may be greatly influenced by the surface wave excitation of fundamental and superlattice reflections.