Influence of Strain on Silicon Surface and Silicon/Oxide Interface Reconstruction.

We show that a small tensile strain induces a 5x5 reconstruction on a clean Si (111) surface, and at an initially unreconstructed Si (111)/oxide interface. The strain stabilisation of the surface reconstruction is so strong that it survives indefinite exposure to air and the formation of a native oxide layer. We present the first High Resolution Transmission Electron Microscope profile image of an nxn reconstruction which indicate the resulting native oxide to be ordered on an atomic scale.