The charge state of individually addressable impurities in semiconductor material was manipulated with a scanning tunneling microscope. The manipulation was fully controlled by the position of the tip and the voltage applied between tip and sample. The experiments were performed at low temperature on the (110) surface of silicon doped GaAs. Silicon donors up to 1 nm below the surface can be reversibly switched between their neutral and ionized state by the local potential induced by the tip. By using ultrasharp tips, the switching process occurs close enough to the impurity to be observed as a sharp circular feature surrounding the donor. By utilizing the controlled manipulation, we were able to map the Coulomb potential of a single donor at the semiconductor-vacuum interface.

We measured the ionization threshold voltage of individual impurities close to a semiconductor-vacuum interface, where we use the STM tip to ionize individual donors. We observe a reversed order of ionization with depth below the surface, which proves that the binding energy is enhanced towards the surface. This is in contrast to the predicted reduction for a Coulombic impurity in the effective mass approach. We can estimate the binding energy from the ionization threshold and show experimentally that in the case of silicon doped gallium arsenide the binding energy gradually increases over the last 1.2 nm below the (110) surface.

In gated semiconductor devices, the space charge layer that is located under the gate electrode acts as the functional element. With increasing gate voltage, the microscopic process forming this space charge layer involves the subsequent ionization or electron capture of individual dopants within the semiconductor. In this Letter, a scanning tunneling microscope tip is used as a movable gate above the (110) surface of n-doped GaAs. We study the build-up process of the space charge region considering donors and visualize the charge states of individual and multi donor systems. The charge configuration of single donors is determined by the position of the tip and the applied gate voltage. In contrast, a two donor system with interdonor distances smaller than 10 nm shows a more complex behavior. The electrostatic interaction between the donors in combination with the modification of their electronic properties close to the surface results in ionization gaps and bistable charge switching behavior.

We present a comprehensive scanning tunneling microscopy and spectroscopy study of individual Si dopants in GaAs. We explain all the spectroscopic peaks and their voltage dependence in the band gap and in the conduction band. We observe both the filled and empty donor state. Donors close to the surface, which have an enhanced binding energy, show a second ionization ring, corresponding to the negatively charged donor D − . The observation of all predicted features at the expected spectral position and with the expected voltage-distance dependence confirms their correct identification and the semiquantitative analyses of their energetic positions.

InAs quantum dots embedded in an AlAs matrix inside a double barrier resonant tunneling diode are investigated by cross-sectional scanning tunneling spectroscopy. The wave functions of the bound quantum dot states are spatially and energetically resolved. These bound states are known to be responsible for resonant tunneling phenomena in such quantum dot diodes. The wave functions reveal a textbook-like one-dimensional harmonic oscillator behavior showing up to five equidistant energy levels of 80 meV spacing. The derived effective oscillator mass of m* = 0.24m0 is 1 order of magnitude higher than the effective electron mass of bulk InAs that we attribute to the influence of the surrounding AlAs matrix. This underlines the importance of the matrix material for tailored QD devices with well-defined properties.

Autocompensated Si-doped GaAs is studied with cross-sectional scanning tunneling spectroscopy (X-STS). The local electronic contrasts of substitutional Si(Ga) donors and Si(As) acceptors under the (110) cleavage plane are imaged with high resolution. Si(Ga) donor atoms exhibit radially symmetric contrasts. Si(As) acceptors have anisotropic features. The anisotropic acceptor contrasts are traced back to a tunnel process at the valence band edge. They reflect the probability density distribution of the localized acceptor hole state.

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