Facet growth due to attractive step–step interactions on vicinal Si(113)

Abstract

We have studied the kinetics of facet growth on Si(113) using high temperature scanning tunneling microscopy. At late times in the process, nucleation events are not observed, and the dominant process is zipping up of adjacent step bunches. Facet growth thus results from propagation of the ramified structures consisting of crossing steps trapped during the earlier stages of nucleation and growth. Analysis of the shape of relaxed crossing steps yields a value of the attractive step–step interaction of ∼15 meV Å −1. Crossing steps undergoing zipping maintain a steady-state shape and a constant propagation speed of ∼10 nm 2 s −1. The propagation is quantitatively explained by a simple model which takes into account the line tension and the short-range attractive step–step interactions. The final relaxation of a crossing step to its minimum length configuration is quantitatively described by this model, with no further adjustable parameters.