Direct observations of the behavior of single silicon atoms on a metal surface

Abstract

The behavior of single silicon adatoms on the W {110} plane has been successfully studied for the first time. Single atom diffusion parameters are found to be E d = 0.70 ± 0.07 eV, and d 0 = 3.08 × 10 −4 × 10 ±1.28 solcm 2 s . The field desorption behavior of Si atoms is similar to that of metal adatoms. SiSi adatom-adatom interaction shows nonmonotonic distance dependence, but the repulsive region around 3.2 Å is much weaker than those found in metal adatom interactions.