  Si(100) surfaces were prepared by wet-chemical etching followed by 0.3-1.5keV
Ar ion sputtering, either at elevated or room temperature. After a brief anneal
under ultrahigh vacuum conditions, the resulting surfaces were examined by
scanning tunneling microscopy. We find that wet-chemical etching alone cannot
produce a clean and flat Si(100) surface. However, subsequent 300eV Ar ion
sputtering at room temperature followed by a 973K anneal yields atomically
clean and flat Si(100) surfaces suitable for nanoscale device fabrication.
