Er-induced 2√3 × 2√3R30° reconstruction on Si(111): influence on the very low Er coverage silicide growth

Atomic structure of thin dysprosium-silicide layers on Si(111)

“…R30 superstructure [14,16]. In this way, each of the twelve silicon dangling bonds in the unit cell can bond to dysprosium atoms, so that every dysprosium atom saturates two silicon dangling bonds.…”

“…Silicides of the trivalent rare earth metals grown as thin films on silicon surfaces are currently of high interest because of their low Schottky-barrier heights on n-type substrates [1][2][3][4][5], their epitaxial growth on Si(1 1 1) [6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18] and the self-organized formation of nanowires on Si(0 0 1) [19][20][21][22][23]. These silicide films can be prepared by rare-earth deposition and subsequent annealing.…”

Surface atomic structure determination of three-dimensional yttrium silicide epitaxially grown on Si(111)

“…Two different models, based on the atomic resolution scanning tunneling microscopy ͑STM͒ images of the surface of ErSi 1.7 epitaxially grown on Si͑111͒, were presented. The first geometry was proposed by Roge et al 31,32 The authors observed in their STM images that one of the three topmost Si atoms ͑Si up ͒ of the buckled layer appears to be lower than the other two. This observation led them to propose a geometry where one Si up atom is sitting on top of the vacancy and, in consequence, inward relaxed with respect to the other two ͓this model is schematically shown in Fig.…”

Single Molecular Machines on Semiconductor Surfaces

“…To control the direction of the motion, the use of 1D periodic surfaces or step edges is a good choice to induce a linear movement. Contrary to metallic surfaces, which offer few possibilities to obtain 1D periodic surfaces (Cu-O/Cu [9] or Au(111) [10]), semiconductor or metal-semiconductor interfaces possess a high number of 1D surface reconstructions [11][12][13][14]. Few of them have been tested for molecular motion; nevertheless, the results obtained on InSb or SmSi are very convincing.…”