Epitaxial growth of Xe on the Si(111) 7×7 surface observed by LEED

The epitaxial growth up to 20 monolayers of Xe on the Si(111) 7×7 surface at several temperatures between 25 and 50 K has been studied by LEED. A variety of different LEED patterns demonstrate that there is a significant influence of the silicon structure on the Xe growth mode. The 7×7 superstructure has a very peculiar influence depending on temperature, so that a periodic sequence of stacking faults is observed in the xenon even in thicker layers.     

A structure analysis of Ag-adsorbed Si(111) surface by LEED/CMTA

The Ag induced superstructures on the Si(111) surface have been studied by low energy electron diffraction constant momentum transfer averaging (LEED/CMTA) technique. The vertical displacements of the atoms are determined from the analysis of the specularly reflected (00) beam intensities. Unexpected behavior of the Ag atoms is clarified: For the √3 × √3-Ag surface it is verified that the Ag atoms are embedded in the first double layer of Si, leading to a considerable rearrangement of the substrate. In contrast, for the 3 × 1-Ag surface, the Ag atoms are riding on the Si surface and the reconstruction of the substrate is small.     

LEED study of the stepped surface of vicinal Si (100)

Periodic stepped surfaces prepared on vicinal silicon (100) by ion bombardment and annealing have been studied by LEED. An unusual aspect of the diffraction patterns from [01̄1] zone samples was the presence of fractional order multiplets with half the splitting of the integral order doublets. An explanation is given, based on the superposition of diffraction from three distinct domain types. These differ in the orientations of their dangling bonds and the arrangements of successive terraces. The simpler patterns from [001] zone samples evidenced just two reconstruction domains. All non-integral order beams disappeared when samples were exposed to ionized hydrogen. This facilitated both the identification of certain lattice distortions, and the determination of step heights, which were found to be two atomic layers in all cases.     

In-phase step wandering on vicinal Si(1 1 1) surfaces

The step structure transition between a regular step and a bunched step on vicinal Si(1 1 1) surfaces induced by DC is studied by the kinetic Monte Carlo simulation in a terrace-adatom-step-kink (TASK) model. In the TASK model, effective force due to DC is taken into account explicitly on the mass transport of Si adatoms. In the diffusion-limited regime corresponding to the experimental temperature range II, step bunching is induced by step-up force and in-phase wandering of a regular step is formed by step-down force. The in-phase wandering of a regular step is formed by nucleation growth mode and the amplitude of wandering grows with time in proportion to . The period of in-phase wandering decreases as the effective force increases, consistent with the recent experimental results.     

A LEED study of the Si{100}(1 × 1)H surface structure

Extensive LEED intensity-energy data have been collected for a Si{100}(1 × 1)H surface and dynamical theory LEED calculations have been performed using an ideal unreconstructed Si(100) surface to model this structure. Agreement between experiment and theory is good indicating that the probable structure for this surface does involve (weakly scattering) H atoms on the “dangling bonds” of an unreconstructed Si(100) surface, and that difficulties in achieving good agreement between experiment and theory for the clean Si{100}(2 × 1) surface is more probably due to deficiencies in the model structure than to deficiencies in the non-structural aspects of the LEED theory.     

The surface structure of Si(100) surfaces using averaged LEED: II. The (2×1) clean surface structure

Constant momentum transfer averaged LEED data from a Si(100) (2 × 1) clean surface structure have been produced for the $\text{(00), (10), (11), (}\text{1}\text{2}\text{0)}$ and $\text{(1}\text{1}\text{2}\text{)}$ beams. All averages show strong features in addition to those attributable to single scattering from the bulk. If this structure is assumed to also originate from single scattering, the surface reconstruction must be deep (>^～4 layers). Alternatively this structure can be ascribed to multiple scattering. As data from the Si(100) (1 × 1)H surface structure produced “good” averaging over an identical range of data, this latter conclusion has considerable bearing on the future usefulness of this averaging approach to surface structure analysis by LEED.     

STM and LEED observations of erbium silicide nanostructures grown on Si(1 0 0) surface: atomic-scale understandings

In this work, erbium silicide is grown on the Si(1 0 0) surface by depositing Er onto the substrate and annealing at 600–700 °C. Many nanowires of Er silicide are formed with lengths in the range 10–100 nm. The formation and evolution of this nanostructure are investigated at atomic scale directly with scanning tunneling microscopy and low-energy electron diffraction. The direction of these nanowires is found perpendicular to that of Si dimer rows. It is shown that Er coverage and annealing temperature have an effect on the formation of nanowires. On the surface between nanowires, new (5×2) and c(5×4) reconstructions are observed, giving an implication to understand the growth behaviors of Er silicide on Si(1 0 0) surface.     

Topologically induced surface electron state on Si(1 1 1) surfaces

First-principle electronic structure calculation reveals the appearance of a new class of surface state on hydrogenated and clean Si(1 1 1) surfaces. The states are found to exhibit different characteristics to conventional surface electron states in terms of the peculiar distribution of the wavefunction depending on the wavenumber. In addition, the state results in flat dispersion bands in a part of the surface Brillouin zone having energy of about 8 eV below the top of the valence band. An analytic expression based on the tight-binding approximation corroborates the surface electron state results from the delicate balance of the electron transfer among the atoms situated near the surface. The obtained results give a possible extension and generalization of the edge state in graphite ribbons with zigzag edges.     

Quasi-one-dimensional structures on the Si(1 1 1) surface induced by Ba adsorption

Ba-induced quasi-one-dimensional reconstructions of the Si(1 1 1) surface have been investigated by low energy electron diffraction (LEED) and scanning tunneling microscopy (STM). While the 3 × ‘2’ surface shows double-periodicity along the stripes in STM images consistent with half-order streaks observed in LEED patterns, no sign of the double-periodicity along the chain direction was detected for the 5 × 1 surface. The 5× stripes in STM images show internal structures with multiple rows. The two rows comprising the boundaries of a 5× stripe in the filled-state STM image are found to have 3a × √3/2 spacing across the stripe. The observation of the successive 3× and 2× spacings between the boundary rows supports a structural model proposed for the Ba-induced 5 × 1 Si reconstruction composed of honeycomb chains and Seiwatz chains. The highest coverage 2 × 8 surface does not reveal a quasi-1D row structure in STM images.     

Surface structure of MgO(001) surface studied by LEED

MgO(001) surfaces prepared by three different heat treatments were studied by LEED. The first was the surface just after the vacuum cleavage; the second was that after the annealing of the first one at 300°C in UHV. The third was prepared by cleaving in air and heating in oxygen until the carbon Auger peak disappear. LEED I-V curves of the diffraction spots, (10), (11) and (20), were recorded and compared carefully. No remarkable difference corresponding to the preparing methods was found. Therefore, the atomic structures of the surfaces seem to be similar to each other. These experimental I-V curves were compared with the theoretical curves obtained by dynamical calculations for several grades of surface relaxation. The theoretical curves with no relaxation or with the smallest one in the calculation (2.5% expand) fitted best with the experimental curves. The experimental curves were also compared with the theoretical ones calculated for the rumpled surface. But no effect induced by the rumpling was found in the experimental curves.     

LEED study of the Pt(110)-(1 × 2) surface

The results of a quantitative LEED study of the clean, reconstructed Pt(110)-(1 × 2) surface are described, in which experimental intensity-energy spectra for ten diffracted beams have been compared, by an γ-factor analysis, to intensity spectra calculated using a dynamic theory for various structural models. Despite considerable effort in ensuring the reliability of the experimental and calculated intensities, a satisfactory level of agreement has not been achieved for any of the model structures considered although a “missing-row” model leads to the closest agreement between experimental and calculated intensities.