  Structural properties of the clean Si(001) surface obtained as a result of
low-temperature (470--650C) pre-growth annealings of silicon wafers in a
molecular-beam epitaxy chamber have been investigated. To decrease the cleaning
temperature, a silicon surface was hydrogenated in the process of a preliminary
chemical treatment in HF and NH_4F aqueous solutions. It has been shown that
smooth surfaces composed by wide terraces separated by monoatomic steps can be
obtained by dehydrogenation at the temperatures > 600C, whereas clean surfaces
obtained at the temperatures < 600C are rough. It has been found that there
exists a dependence of structural properties of clean surfaces on the
temperature of hydrogen thermal desorption and the process of the preliminary
chemical treatment. The frequency of detachment/attachment of Si dimers from/to
the steps and effect of the Ehrlich-Schwoebel barrier on ad-dimer migration
across steps have been found to be the most probable factors determining a
degree of the resultant surface roughness.
