The atomic-scale desorption of hydrogen atoms from the $\mathrm{Si}\mathrm{}\left(100\right)-2\mathrm{}\times 1:\mathrm{H}$ surface with the tip of the scanning tunneling microscope has been studied using two different desorption methods, namely the stationary and scanning modes. Both p-type and n-type silicon samples have been investigated and a statistical large data set has been acquired. At low sample voltage (+2.5 V), the desorption yield has been found to follow a power law of the tunnel current $I^{\alpha },$ with α being much smaller (≈1) than in previous reports (≈10–15). This means that highly dissipative inelastic electronic channels with very few electrons involved (≈2) are more favorable than previously proposed schemes involving many (≈11–16) weakly dissipative electrons.

• Received 10 January 2003

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.68.035303