Atomic and electronic structure of the Yb/Ge(111)-(3x2) surface studied by high-resolution photoelectron spectroscopy

Using high-resolution synchrotron-radiation photoelectron spectroscopy and low-energy electron diffraction, we have studied the electronic and structural properties of the Yb-induced Ge(111)-(3x2) reconstruction with a 1/6 monolayer coverage. We found these properties to be similar in many respects to those of the metal-induced Si(111) and Ge(111) reconstructions described previously in terms of the honeycomb chain-channel (HCC) structure. In particular, the Yb/Ge(111)-(3x2) is revealed to have a semiconducting character, the Yb atoms are divalent, and the surface states observed for the Yb/Ge(111) closely resemble those of the Na/Ge(111)-(3x1) in the literature. The Ge 3d core-level analysis, however, shows that the Ge 3d spectra from Yb/Ge(111)-(3x2) drastically differ from corresponding spectra of other Si and Ge HCC reconstructions. An atomic model, based on the general HCC geometry, is proposed for the Yb/Ge(111)-(3x2) surface. In this model, the important structural aspects are a buckling of the Ge = Ge double bond in the top, HCC-reconstructed layer plus a strong rearrangement of the second-layer atoms.