Influence of temperature on the controlled growth kinetics and superstructural phase formation of indium on a reconstructed Si (113) 3 × 2 surface

Abstract

The kinetics of growth, thermal stability and superstructural phase formation of the indium atom on a reconstructed Si (113) 3 × 2 surface at room temperature (RT), as well as at high substrate temperature (HT), is discussed. It was observed that at a very low flux rate of 0.08 ML min−1, In-adsorption at RT follows the Frank-van der Merwe (FM) growth mode, while for HT (>200 °C), In-islands (the Volmer–Weber-growth mode) were formed. The residual thermal desorption (RTD) analysis revealed the anomalous behaviour of temperature-driven layering to the clustering rearrangement of In atoms on the Si (113) surface for RT- and 200 °C-grown systems. The RTD study also demonstrates the effect of temperature on growth kinetics as well as on the multilayer/monolayer desorption pathway. The calculated bilayer desorption energy was found to be different for RT- (TB, 0.48 eV) and HT- (TB, 1.57 eV) grown In/Si(113) systems, while the monolayer desorption energy (TM, 2.56 eV) was the same in both the cases. Various coverage-dependent superstructural phases, such as Si(113) 3 × 2 + 3 × 1, 3 × 1, 3 × 2 + 1 × 3 and 1 × 1, have been observed during the RT- and HT-growth of In on the Si (113) surface. A complete phase diagram of In/Si(113) is deduced which depicts the evolution of novel phases as a function of substrate temperature and coverage.