Analysis of growth on 75 mm Si (100) wafers by molecular beam epitaxy using in vacuo scanning tunneling microscopy

Jernigan, Glenn G.; Thompson, Phillip E.; Twigg, M. E.

doi:10.1016/s0921-5107(01)00819-4

Cited by 7 publications

(1 citation statement)

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“…21,22 Works going back to the earliest studies of vapor-phase crystal growth describe multilayer step pinning growth pits in Si under various deposition conditions, both in MBE and CVD. [24][25][26][27][28][29][30][31][32][33][34][35] Intuitively, spontaneous pit for-mation in homoepitaxy is unlikely without some driving force, such as bulk strain relief. 36,37 It is likely that pits are a metastable feature caused by step pinning and bunching around extrinsic defects, e.g.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Heterogeneous nucleation of pits via step pinning during Si(100) homoepitaxy

et al. 2017

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Using scanning tunneling microscopy (STM), we investigate oxide-induced growth pits in Si thin films deposited by molecular beam epitaxy. In the transition temperature range from 2D adatom islanding to step-flow growth, systematic controlled air leaks into the growth chamber induce pits in the growth surface. We show that pits are also correlated with oxygen-contaminated flux from Si sublimation sources. From a thermodynamic standpoint, multilayer growth pits are unexpected in relaxed homoepitaxial growth, whereas oxidation is a known cause for step pinning, roughening, and faceting on elemental surfaces, both with and without growth flux. Not surprisingly, pits are thermodynamically metastable and heal by annealing to recover a smooth periodic step arrangement. STM reveals new details about the pits' atomistic origins and growth dynamics. We give a model for heterogeneous nucleation of pits by preferential adsorption of Å-sized oxide nuclei at intrinsic growth antiphase boundaries, and subsequent step pinning and bunching around the nuclei.

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