Initial Growth of Ag/Si(100) Studied with High Spatial Resolution Aes and Sem

Abstract

ABSTRACTThe initial growth of Ag on reconstructed Si(100) has been studied with biassed secondary electron imaging (b-SEI) and Auger electron spectroscopy (AES) in an ultra-high vacuum (UHV) scanning transmission microscope (STEM) with nanometer resolution. Small Ag islands have been observed with strong contrast in b-SE images. Anisotropic growth, correlated with the (2×1) and (1×2) dimer reconstruction, is seen at room temperature and sub-monolayer (ML) coverage. Large Ag islands (∼1 μm) formed at 475 °C substrate temperature have even more dramatic forms with large aspect ratios. The Stranski-Krastanov (SK) mode is confirmed at both temperatures by AES and b-SEI between the islands, with the intermediate layer coverage equal to 0.5 ML or less.