Atomic imaging of the monolayer nucleation and unpinning of a compound semiconductor surface during atomic layer deposition

The reaction of trimethyl aluminum on the group III rich reconstructions of InAs(0 0 1) and In(0.53)Ga(0.47)As(0?0?1) is observed with scanning tunneling microscopy/spectroscopy. At high coverage, a self-terminated ordered overlayer is observed that provides the monolayer nucleation density required for subnanometer thick transistor gate oxide scaling and removes the surface Fermi level pinning that is present on the clean InGaAs surface. Density functional theory simulations confirm that an adsorbate-induced reconstruction is the basis of the monolayer nucleation density and passivation.