Initial stages of iridium-semiconductor compound formation: A field-ion-microscope study of interface atomic structures.

Abstract

The early stages of formation of thin layers of IrSi and IrGe on Ir surfaces have been studied. Distinctive stages of growth have been observed. In the earliest stage on Ir(001), atomically resolved images show a structure resembling the c(2\ifmmode\times\else\texttimes\fi{}2) of the substrate, which we believe to have the (011) Ir-layer structure of the IrSi and IrGe crystals. In the second stage, the (2\ifmmode\times\else\texttimes\fi{}1) image structure on Ir(011) is identified to be the Ir layer of the IrSi(001) fundamental plane.