The Evolution of Periodic Step Arrays on Si by Surface Diffusion

Abstract

AbstractPeriodic step arrays on Si(001) surfaces have been produced using photolithography, reactive ion etching and vacuum annealing. These have been studied by optical diffraction, low energy electron diffraction(LEED), and scanning tunneling microscopy (STM). The periodically varying step density on these arrays has been examined by STM. For small deviations from (100) along the [110] zone, single atomic steps dominate, while at larger angles biatomic steps are the most common; at intermediate angles the steps are of mixed character and there is some evidence for a range of unstable orientations. Interesting differences in the ratio of the areas of the two types of terrace (2×1) reconstructions are observed for the minima and maxima of the quasi- sinusoidal surfaces; these differences may be due to stresses produced by the step arrays or to differences in the line tensions associated with the two different types of steps on reconstructed Si(001) surfaces. The observations will be compared to the predictions of capillarity theory for isotropie materials. At high temperatures surface diffusion leads to a decay in amplitude of these surface gratings probably by mutual annihilation of atomic steps at the extrema. The overall rate of this process has been followed by monitoring the change in the distribution of intensity in the diffraction pattern from the grating using a He-Ne laser while the sample is annealed in UHV. With some simplifying assumptions, the intensity distribution can be directly related to the grating amplitude. The experiments are being performed for a range of grating spacings (to allow identification of the dominant transport process from scaling laws) and for a range of temperatures. The relationship between the ‘macroscopic’ observations of the shape development and the STM results will be explored.