Abstract
Growth behavior of epitaxial CoSi 2(001) films on clean Si(001) surfaces and oxidized Si(001) surfaces with oxygen coverages below 2 ML has been investigated by scanning tunneling microscopy. In the solid-phase epitaxy of 3 ML-thick Co on clean Si surfaces at 530°C, rectangular-shaped CoSi 2(001) three-dimensional (3D) islands elongated along the 〈110〉 direction were grown on thermally stable two-dimensional layers of CoSi 2(001). This fact suggests that the CoSi 2/Si(001) epitaxial growth obeys a Stranski–Krastanov-like mode. The shape of 3D islands is considered to be explained by energetics to reduce the surface energy of CoSi 2. Moreover, it is found that oxygen atoms act as a kind of surfactant to lower the surface energy of CoSi 2. Almost pinhole-free and atomically-flat epitaxial CoSi 2(001) films with a thickness of 6 ML can be realized by solid-phase epitaxy under the condition of an annealing temperature of 470°C and oxygen coverages of 1–2 ML.
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