Step-step interaction on vicinal Si(001) surfaces studied by scanning tunneling microscopy
نویسندگان
چکیده
We report on measurements of step-step interaction on a flat Si 111 7 7 surface and on vicinal Si 001 surfaces with miscut angles ranging between 0.2° and 8°. Starting from scanning tunneling microscopy images of these surfaces and describing steps profile and interactions by the continuum step model, we measured the self-correlation function of single steps and the distribution of terrace widths. Empirical parameters, such as step stiffness and step-step interaction strength, were evaluated from the images. The present experiment allows to assess the dependence of the step-step repulsion on miscut angle, showing how parameters drawn from tunneling images can be used to interpolate between continuum mesoscopic models and atomistic calculations of vicinal surfaces.
منابع مشابه
Kinetic roughening of vicinal Si ( 001 )
The kinetic roughening behavior of vicinal Si(OO1) surfaces is studied with scanning tunneling microscopy. By analyzing the height-height correlation function of the Si layers that have been grown we found, in the case of islands growth, an algebraic roughening behavior with a roughness exponent of 0.68 * 0.05. In the step flow mode, however, we found non-algebraic roughening behavior.
متن کاملStep-Induced Optical Anisotropy of Vicinal Si(001)
It is demonstrated, using reflectance difference spectroscopy, scanning tunneling microscopy, and low-energy electron diffraction, combined with deliberate straining of the surface, that the presence of atomic steps dramatically changes the optical anisotropy of the Si(001) surface. The step-induced reflectance difference signal originates predominately from rebonded steps and is comparable in ...
متن کاملSelf-assembly of parallel atomic wires and periodic clusters of silicon on a vicinal Si111 surface.
Silicon self-assembly at step edges in the initial stage of homoepitaxial growth on a vicinal Si(111) surface is studied by scanning tunneling microscopy. The resulting atomic structures change dramatically from a parallel array of 0.7 nm wide wires to one-dimensionally aligned periodic clusters of diameter approximately 2 nm and periodicity 2.7 nm in the very narrow range of growth temperature...
متن کاملAnomalous strong repulsive step - step interaction on slightly misoriented Si „ 113 ...
We have used scanning tunneling microscopy to study Si~113! 0.2° misoriented towards @11̄0#. Rapid quenching of this surface from 1500–1575 K to room temperature results in a uniformly stepped single-domain surface, whereas slower cooling gives rise to clustering of steps. The thermally induced step wandering and the terrace width distribution of the uniformly stepped surface are analyzed in ord...
متن کاملOne-dimensional Si-in-Si(001) template for single-atom wire growth
Single atom metallic wires of arbitrary length are of immense technological and scientific interest. We present atomic-resolution scanning tunneling microscope data of a silicon-only template, which modeling predicts to enable the self-organized growth of isolated micrometer long surface and subsurface single-atom chains. It consists of a one-dimensional, defect-free Si reconstruction four dime...
متن کامل