Self‐assembled Si nanostripe grating at the molecular scale as a template for 1D growth

Abstract

At room temperature, the early stages (submonolayer) of silicon (Si) deposition onto the anisotropic Ag(110) surface lead to the formation of flat-lying, individual Si nanostripes, with a high aspect ratio, all oriented along the Ag[−100] direction. Two kinds of nanostripes, varying in their width, are observed. When deposited at ∼200• C, these one-dimensional (1D) nanostructures self-assemble laterally, to form a perfect 1D-array of essentially identical nanowires, 1.6 nm in width. They cover uniformly the entire Ag substrate up to macroscopic sizes. The self-assembled Si nanostripes have been characterized by high-resolution scanning tunneling microscopy (STM), and a model of their atomic arrangement is proposed. This Si grating has been subsequently used as a template for selective 1D growth of 1D Co nanolines.

Nanoscale template for the growth of one-dimensional nanostructures

“…This 1D superlattice corresponds to a 5 × 2 superstructure with the nanostripes all oriented along the [−110] direction and a periodicity of ∼2 nm in the [001] direction. As reported in [16], the grating covers the whole surface with a very low density of defects. A possible atomic structure for the Si nanostripes based on our atomically resolved STM images in conjunction with a theoretical study employing the density functional theory has been proposed [10].…”

Endoepitaxial growth of hexagonal-Fe13Ge8 islands on Cubic-Ge(001)

“…These nanoscale structures, with remarkable uniformity in size distribution, are of intense interest in science and engineering. Selfassembly provides a potentially low-cost fabrication route to engineer defect-free nanosize structures, which possess fascinating electronic, magnetic, and optical properties that are important for future nanotechnology applications [4][5][6][7][8][9]. These nanostructures are the integral build blocks in the bottom up processes to nanotechnology [10].…”