Fabrication of well-aligned Er nanowires on vicinal silicon(001) surfaces

Abstract

Using vicinal Si(001) surfaces with a4° miscut angle towards the [110] direction as templates, an approach to fabricating well-alignednanowires of Er silicide is demonstrated. At Er coverage of 0.1–0.3 nm and annealing temperature of600–700 °C, ordered nanowires are obtained on the surface several hundreds of nanometres in length.STM images and LEED patterns reveal that the nanowires are all oriented along the direction. The size, shape and density of the nanowires depends uponannealing temperature and duration as well as coverage. The experimentalevidence also suggests a transition of bulk atomic structures betweenAlB2 and ThSi2 for Er silicide nanostructures. The alignment of the Er nanowires will make themeasurements of their physical properties practicable.