High purity chemical etching and thermal passivation process for Ge(001) as nanostructure template

An advanced two-step cleaning process of the Ge(001) surface for nanoscience requirements is presented. First, wet-chemical etching with a variant of the Piranha solution (H(2)SO(4), H(2)O(2), H(2)O) is used to remove contaminants as well as the native oxide layer. Second, passivation of the surface is achieved by a rapid thermal oxidation step, leading to a homogeneous protective oxide layer. The thickness of the oxide layer is tuned to be thick enough to protect the surface, yet thin enough to be completely removed by thermal treatment in ultra-high vacuum. The application of this recipe results in an outstandingly clean and atomically flat surface, with carbon contamination at the detection limit of x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. Scanning tunneling microscopy and electron diffraction reveal a long range ordered surface with typical terrace diameters of ~100 nm, suitable for the growth of atomic-scale nanostructures.