Imaging Buried Interfacial Lattices with Quantized Electrons

Altfeder, Igor; Chen, D. M.; Матвеев, К. А.

doi:10.1103/physrevlett.80.4895

Cited by 89 publications

(91 citation statements)

References 12 publications

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“…Occasionally, the corrugations of different boundaries can be correlated with each other, ␣ ␤ 0. 37 Experimentally, the correlation function ͑21͒ is not necessarily Gaussian. 4,38 When possible, we avoid specifying the form of the correlation function and express the results via the angular harmonics of ik (s).…”

Section: ͑20͒mentioning

confidence: 99%

Quantized systems with randomly corrugated walls and interfaces

Meyerovich

Stepaniants

1999

Phys. Rev. B

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Effect of scattering by random surface inhomogeneities on transport along the walls and localization in ultrathin systems is analyzed. A simple universal surface collision operator is derived outside of the quantum resonance domain. This operator contains all relevant information on statistical and geometrical characteristics of weak roughness and can be used as a general boundary condition on the corrugated surfaces. In effect, the boundary problem for the three-dimensional ͑3D͒ transport equation is replaced by the explicit matrix collision operator coupling a set of 2D transport equations. This operator is applied to a variety of systems including ultrathin films and channels with rough walls, particles adsorbed on or bound to rough substrates, multilayer systems with randomly corrugated interfaces, etc. The main emphasis is on quantization of motion between the walls, though the quasiclassical limit is considered as well. The diffusion and mobility coefficients, localization length, and other parameters are expressed analytically or semianalytically via the intrawall and interwall correlation functions of surface corrugation. ͓S0163-1829͑99͒00935-2͔

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Section: ͑20͒mentioning

confidence: 99%

Quantized systems with randomly corrugated walls and interfaces

Meyerovich

Stepaniants

1999

Phys. Rev. B

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“…7,27,28,32,39 and references therein) though the experiments are done for thicker films, away from the QSE regime. Other groups 8 have desirable QSE capabilities when dealing with STM of inhomogeneous buried interfaces but have not concentrated on measurements of conductivity. To the best of our knowledge, none of the experimental groups, with the exception of, maybe, Ref.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…QSE in metal films with inhomogeneous buried interfaces has already been observed experimentally by STM and related techniques though without simultaneous measurements of lateral conductivity. 8 Conductivity in these types of experiments can be measured using, for example, the same multiprobe STM 13,15 or atomically clean nanoelectrodes. 16 Note that our quantum transport theory already has an experimental confirmation in the case of ultracold neutrons in a rough waveguide.…”

Section: A Experimental Backgroundmentioning

confidence: 99%

Quantum size effect and the two types of interference between bulk and boundary scattering in ultrathin films

Chatterjee

Meyerovich

2011

Phys. Rev. B

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“…These peaks arise from quantum well states induced by the spatial confinement of the thin Pb film. [9][10][11] The energy separation between neighboring quantum well states, ⌬, is decreasing from spectra A to C. From this we can conclude that the thickness of the Pb film, i.e., the width of the confining potential, is increasing from spectra A to C. Thus, between the upper part of the STM image in Fig. 2͑a͒ and its lower part at least two steps must be present at the buried Pb-Si interface in order to increase the thickness of the Pb film.…”

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confidence: 99%

“…2 Indeed, such QWS have been observed using photoemission 2,6,7 and scanning tunneling spectroscopy. [8][9][10][11] Since the energy levels of QWS depend sensitively upon the film thickness, it is therefore possible, from the measurement of local QWS, to determine the local thickness of the thin film from which the underlying step structure can be deduced. 12 Indeed, by studying individual Pb islands on Si͑111͒ substrates, Altfelder et al, found that the variation of QWS correlates with the substrate step structure visible at the edges of the metal island.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Probing the step structure of buried metal/semiconductor interfaces using quantized electron states: The case of Pb on Si(111) 6×6-Au

Jiang

Ebert

et al. 2002

Applied Physics Letters

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The three-dimensional step structure at the buried Pb on Si͑111͒ 6ϫ6-Au interface is determined by utilizing the presence of quantum well states. We demonstrate that the spatial step positions as well as the step heights can be extracted nondestructively and with atomic layer precision by scanning tunneling microscopy and spectroscopy. © 2002 American Institute of Physics. ͓DOI: 10.1063/1.1506404͔ Thin metal films on semiconductor substrates are crucial components of many semiconductor devices. The physical properties of these thin films are to a large degree governed by the film morphology, which in turn is directly affected by the roughness of the buried metal-semiconductor interface. Despite large efforts in determining the interfaces' step structure with a variety of nondestructive tools, the real space three-dimensional step-structure determination of interfaces still remains a formidable task.Recently, there has been much progress in synthesizing ultrathin metal films on semiconductor substrates. In particular, it has been shown that atomically flat thin metallic films with nanometer scale thickness can be successfully grown. [1][2][3][4][5] In such an ultrathin metal film, electrons are subjected to strong confinement along the vertical direction, resulting in quantum well states ͑QWS͒. 2 Indeed, such QWS have been observed using photoemission 2,6,7 and scanning tunneling spectroscopy. [8][9][10][11] Since the energy levels of QWS depend sensitively upon the film thickness, it is therefore possible, from the measurement of local QWS, to determine the local thickness of the thin film from which the underlying step structure can be deduced. 12 Indeed, by studying individual Pb islands on Si͑111͒ substrates, Altfelder et al., found that the variation of QWS correlates with the substrate step structure visible at the edges of the metal island. 9 This correlation is, however, based on the ability to measure directly in scanning tunneling microscopy ͑STM͒ images the height of individual islands on the substrate ͑with wetting layer͒. Unfortunately such a simple correlation is no longer possible for a fully covering two-dimensional metal film, which is the ultimate goal for applications in semiconductor devices. In this letter we demonstrate the nondestructive methodology on how to determine the step structure at buried metal-semiconductor interfaces for fully covering twodimensional thin metal films using STM.As a model system we grew Pb films on Si͑111͒ 6ϫ6-Au surfaces at room temperature. On such a surface,

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Imaging Buried Interfacial Lattices with Quantized Electrons

Cited by 89 publications

References 12 publications

Quantized systems with randomly corrugated walls and interfaces

Quantized systems with randomly corrugated walls and interfaces

Quantum size effect and the two types of interference between bulk and boundary scattering in ultrathin films

Probing the step structure of buried metal/semiconductor interfaces using quantized electron states: The case of Pb on Si(111) 6×6-Au

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