Abstract
We have observed using angle-resolved photoemission a structural phase transformation of Bi films deposited on Si(111)-$7\ifmmode\times\else\texttimes\fi{}7$. Films with thicknesses 20 to $\ensuremath{\sim}100\text{ }\text{\AA{}}$, upon annealing, first order into a metastable pseudocubic (PC) phase and then transform into a stable rhombohedral (RH) phase with very different topologies for the quantum-well subband structures. The PC phase shows a surface band with a maximum near the Fermi level at $\overline{\ensuremath{\Gamma}}$, whereas the RH phase shows a Dirac-like subband around $\overline{\text{M}}$ along $\overline{\text{K}}\ensuremath{-}\overline{\text{M}}\ensuremath{-}\overline{\text{K}}$. The formation of the metastable phase over a wide thickness range can be attributed to a surface nucleation mechanism.
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