Roughening of steps during homoepitaxial growth on Si(001)

Wu, Friedrich; Jaloviar, S. G.; Savage, D. E.; Lagally, M. G.

doi:10.1103/physrevlett.71.4190

Cited by 49 publications

(22 citation statements)

References 24 publications

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“…The asymmetry in the diffusion field results either from the energy barrier suppressing the interlayer transport (the Ehrlich-Schwoebel effect [6][7][8][9][10]) or from the drift of adatoms due to the external field (for instance, the electromigration [11,12]). In Si(111), a direct electric current is shown to induce the bunching instability [13,14], and this is attributed to the drift of adatoms perpendicular to the steps [3,[15][16][17][18][19].…”

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confidence: 99%

Control of Chaotic Wandering of an Isolated Step by the Drift of Adatoms

1998

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The drift of adatoms strongly influences the wandering pattern of an isolated step moving in a surface diffusion field. When the drift velocity has a component against the step motion and exceeds a critical value, the straight step becomes unstable with long wavelength fluctuations, and wanders. This wandering pattern can be controlled by changing the direction of the drift. When the drift has no component parallel to the step edge, the unstable step obeys the Kuramoto-Sivashinsky equation and shows a chaotic pattern. When the drift has a component parallel to the step edge, the step obeys the Benney equation. If the parallel component is sufficiently large, the step shows a regular pattern.[ S0031-9007(98)

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Control of Chaotic Wandering of an Isolated Step by the Drift of Adatoms

1998

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“…On substrates with a miscut along [1 1 0], one can distinguish between two pure types of steps: S A steps where the dimer rows are running parallel to the step edge, and S B steps where they are perpendicular [8]. In contrast, for substrates with a miscut along [1 0 0], a step edge consists of a sequence of alternating S A -and S B -type segments [3]. Using scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) during growth [9] we study evolution of such ''mixed'' steps and show that they are kinetically unstable and undergo faceting during Si growth.…”

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confidence: 95%

“…For example, mound formation on initially flat singular surfaces indicates a hindered downward interlayer transport of atoms across step edges [2]. Epitaxial growth on the Si(0 0 1) surface provides another important example of an unstable behaviour: the kinetic instabilities observed during Si/Si(0 0 1) deposition, such as a step fingering [3], formation of rippled structures [4], and appearance of a macroscopic zigzag morphology [5], are known to be induced by the anisotropic kinetics inherent to the (2 · 1) dimer reconstruction of the Si(0 0 1) surface. Anisotropic diffusion of adatoms on Si(0 0 1) surface [6] and much higher probability of adatom sticking to the end of dimer rows than to the side [7] are the main factors controlling these instabilities.…”

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“Rotating” steps in Si(001) homoepitaxy

Filimonov

Voigtländer

2004

Surface Science

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“…It causes inhomogeneities on the clean Si(001) surface and affects the nucleation and growth in the epitaxy. Many theoretical and experimental studies have been devoted to resolve the atomic structure of the step [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13]. The monatomic step on the Si(001) surface is classified into two types, S A and S B [3].…”

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Monatomic step structure on the Si(001) surface

Koo

Hwang

et al. 1998

Applied Physics A: Materials Science & Processing

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The atomic structure of the monatomic steps on the Si(001) surface is investigated by scanning tunneling microscopy. The kink at the intersection of the S A and S B steps induces a strong buckling along the rebonded dimer row in the lower terrace. On the upper terrace of the S B step, the kink induces a local p(2×2) structure directed toward the center of the step. The strains of second-layer atoms supporting the dimers are responsible for the reconstruction near the monatomic steps on the Si(001) surface.The step on the Si(001) surface is one of the most abundant intrinsic defects. It causes inhomogeneities on the clean Si(001) surface and affects the nucleation and growth in the epitaxy. Many theoretical and experimental studies have been devoted to resolve the atomic structure of the step [1-13]. The monatomic step on the Si(001) surface is classified into two types, S A and S B [3].For the S A step, two types of structure are expected, depending on the direction of the buckling. The theoretical calculations estimate those structures to have the same total energy within the limit of calculation accuracy [14], but only one of two structures has been observed in experiments [1]. The structure of the S B step classifies into three types depending on the structure of dimers at the step edge; rebonded, nonrebonded, and split. On a well-prepared clean Si(001) surface, the S B step edge is found to be of the rebonded type. When the surface is under a tensional stress near vacancy defects, the rebonded S B step edge is transformed into a split one. The nonrebonded S B step edge appears only in a special environment, namely one where free movement and/or supply of atoms is restricted [15]. These three types of step edge, in combination with the buckling of dimers, increase the structural varieties near the S B step [14].Since every step has a finite width, kinks are inevitably created at both ends. A kink is influenced by a strong asymmetrical environment that induces a local structure on neighboring dimer rows in the upper and lower terraces of the step [16]. Since the kink is located at the intersection of S A and S B steps, the S A and S B steps are strongly correlated through it.In this work, we investigate the atomic structure of the monatomic S A and S B steps by scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) and derive a simple geometric rule based on the bonding characteristics to explain the various structures near the steps. To avoid the complexity relating to the S B step, only the rebonded type (which is dominant on a well-prepared clean Si(001) surface) is taken into account. Experimental methodOur experiments were performed in an ultrahigh vacuum below 3 × 10 −10 Torr with a home-made STM. The Si(001) samples were cut from a P-doped Si(001) wafer (10 Ω cm) and wrapped with Ta foil at both ends to prevent direct contact with the Mo holder -a slight contact of the sample with the Mo holder causes contaminations and increases dimer vacancies on the sample surface after heat treatments. Then the samples were mounted on ...

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Roughening of steps during homoepitaxial growth on Si(001)

Cited by 49 publications

References 24 publications

Control of Chaotic Wandering of an Isolated Step by the Drift of Adatoms

Control of Chaotic Wandering of an Isolated Step by the Drift of Adatoms

“Rotating” steps in Si(001) homoepitaxy

Monatomic step structure on the Si(001) surface

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