The very surface states on GaAs(001) surface by means of electronic and optical techniques

Until now, Reflectance-Anisotropy Spectroscopy (RAS) in the visible has been the most used technique to quantify the anisotropy of these surfaces. Low-energy electrons are believed to perturb more than photons and have not been employed to this purpose, despite their shorter penetration depth. In our presentation we show experimental results of High-Resolution Electron-Energy-Loss Spectroscopy (HREELS) applied to investigate the anisotropy of the GaAs(001)-c(4x4) and beta2(2x4) surfaces. We demonstrate the higher surface sensitivity of HREELS compared to RAS. Measurements are performed on high-quality samples grown in situ by Molecular Beam Epitaxy (MBE). The loss spectra taken in the two orthogonal surface directions have different intensities, particularly close to the fundamental gap, where surface like resonances, involving dimers, are observed. We discuss our HREELS and RAS data to identify the source of the anisotropy close to the critical point transitions where surface and bulk like excitations coexist. Our data are in very good agreement with DFT-LDA calculations for loss energies up to 3.5 eV. The exposure of the reconstructed surfaces to molecular oxygen affects strongly the spectral features.