Determination of band bending at the Si(113) surface from photovoltage-induced core-level shifts

Abstract

The Si 2p core levels were measured by photoelectron spectroscopy with use of synchrotron radiation for the clean Si(113) 3×2 surface. The core levels exhibit shifts of several hundred meV during the change of sample temperature from 300 to 20 K. We interpret these shifts as due to a release of band bending by saturation surface photovoltage. Together with core-level spectroscopy, this turns out to be a new, highly accurate method in determining Fermi-level pinning. For the clean Si(113) 3×2 surface the pinning position coincides within 25 meV for n- and p-type doped samples. At 20 K, a strong reduction of the Si 2p linewidth is found for the p-type sample, which is only to a lesser degree due to band flattening. An intrinsic linewidth of the Si 2p core level of 205±30 meV is derived.