GaN
is an excellent candidate for photocatalytic, optoelectronic,
and high-power devices, and the interaction between the GaN surface
and ambient species, especially H2O and O2,
has drawn exceptional attention. In this study, the evolution of the
n-GaN(0001) surface geometric structure and the corresponding band
bending (a key parameter that describes the surface electronic structure
of a semiconductor) during H2O and O2 exposure
is predicted from first-principles calculations and confirmed by ambient
pressure X-ray photoemission spectroscopy (AP-XPS) measurements. Overall,
the AP-XPS results are in good agreement with the predictions, and
we discuss the possible origin of the difference in the band bending
of H2O- and O2-adsorbed surfaces. In the case
of the O2-exposed surface, upward band bending is observed
above the effective coverage of 3/4 ML (3/8 ML of O atoms) because
the Fermi level becomes pinned to the N-2p-originated surface states,
which is formed through Ga–N bond scission by O atom adsorption
and insertion into the slab. As for the H2O-exposed surface,
the saturated band bending depends on the H2O supply rate:
When the supply rate is high, half dissociation of H2O
is dominant and the band bending approaches the flat-band condition
due to the termination of surface Ga dangling bonds by H and OH; when
the supply rate is low, the saturated band bending matches that of
the O2-adsorbed surface, presumably due to the O atoms
that are formed by full dissociation of H2O.