Table of contents

This review organizes and presents the state of the art of research related to the composition, atomic and electronic structure, and electronic properties of various superstructures that were recently shown to exist on clean β-SiC(100) surfaces. In the past 10 years, considerable experimental and theoretical progress in clean β-SiC(100) surfaces has been made. In particular, various surface reconstructions have been identified and studied, and the controlled formation of highly stable, very long straight lines of Si dimers self-organizing on a β-SiC(100) surface have been found, with the line separation being determined by the annealing time and temperature. Many aspects of the field (composition, unit cell models, etc.) are still subject to debate, however.

Theoretical and experimental work relevant to isotopic (mass) effects in solids is reviewed. The effect of isotopic composition on the phonon spectrum is discussed with particular emphasis on chemically pure and nearly perfect semiconductor single crystals. The fundamental role of polarization vectors in polyatomic compounds is pointed out. Static atomic displacements around isotopic impurities — an effect potentially leading to considerable phonon (and electron) scattering in strongly anharmonic crystals — are also discussed.