Calculation of rheed from stepped Si(001) for interpretation of rheed oscillations during MBE

RHEED intensities from stepped Si(001) surfaces are calculated to show the azimuthai dependence of RHEED intensity oscillations during Si MBE on a single domain of Si(001). The results explain why different intensities are observed when the incident beam azimuth is along the [110] and the [1̄10] directions and they are consistent with recently reported experimental results. In addition the results of the calculations indicate that the preferred island growth direction is perpendicular to the bonding direction between the atoms in the growing layer and the underlying substrate layer.     

Si衬底上分子束外延Ge,Si时的反射式高能电子衍射强度振荡观察

本文观察了在Si(100)和Si(111)衬底上分子束外延Si,Ge时的反射式高能电子衍射(RHEED)强度振荡现象。其振荡特性表明,外延一定厚度的缓冲层可以改善表面的平整性,较慢的生长速率或中断生长一段时间有利于外延膜晶体质量的提高。Si(100)上外延Si或Ge时,沿[100]和[110]方位观测到的振荡特性均为单原子模式,起因于表面存在双畴(2×1)再构;而Si(111)上外延Ge时,[112]方位观测到的振荡为双原子层模式,但在[110]方位观察到不均匀周期的强度振荡行为。两种衬底上保持RHEED     

电子衍射条件对Si(111)外延时反射式高能电子衍射强度振荡的影响

本文研究了不同电子衍射条件对Si(111)外延时的反射式高能电子衍射(RHEED)强度振荡的影响,在保持生长条件不变的情况下,沿[112]方位观测时,不同入射角下其强度振荡的相位和初始瞬态响应变化很大,甚至会发生180°相位变化,而在[011]方位观测时,其相位的变化不明显,结合Si(111)面的RHEED强度摇摆曲线测量结果,表明这种与电子衍射条件有关的振荡特性变化,实际上反映了由电子多重散射机理引起的RHEED强度振荡两种情形,对RHEED强度的初始瞬态响应机理也作了探讨。 关键词：     

Si(111)分子束外延的生长动力学过程研究

本文用反射式高能电子衍射(RHEED)强度振荡研究了不同生长温度下Si(111)分子束外延的生长动力学过程,生长温度高于520℃(生长速率约0.15?/S)时,Si(111)外延为“台阶流”生长模式,生长温度低于475℃时,外延为“二维成核”双原子层生长模式,在较低温,甚至室温时,其外延仍为双原子层模式,但是镜向弹性散射束振荡和非弹性散射束振荡的叠加会造成RHEED强度在生长的最初阶段出现“类单原子层”模式的振荡特性。 关键词：     

用RHEED强度振荡锁相外延控制Ge/Si超晶格的生长

观察了Ge,Ge/Si交替外延时的反射式高能电子衍射(RHEED)强度振荡现象,并由此研究了Si(100)和Si(111)衬底上分子束外延Ge,Ge/Si超薄叠层的生长行为和生长特性。利用RHEED强度振荡,锁相控制生长了Ge(2ML)/Si(2ML),Ge(4ML)/Si(4ML)超薄超晶格。 关键词：     

Growth dynamics studied by RHEED during Si/Ge epitaxy from gaseous hydrides

Si and Ge epitaxial growth from disilane and germane in a gas-source molecular beam epitaxy (GSMBE) system is followed in situ by reflection high-energy electron diffraction (RHEED) intensity oscillations. During Ge homoepitaxy, the growth rate on a Ge(100) substrate is found to be limited by surface hydrogen desorption below 350°C and by hydride adsorption above this temperature. Ge heteroepitaxy on Si results in incomplete layer growth leaving exposed Si at the surface during the initial stages of growth. Therefore, a gradual change in the observed Si surface concentration is seen as growth proceeds. Si heteroepitaxy on Ge follows the Volmer-Weber growth mode and proceeds via island formation. This, combined with Ge surface segregation, results in a slow decrease of the Ge surface population at the growth front. During heteroepitaxial growth, hydride reaction rates differ on Si and Ge surfaces, and therefore a changing concentration of the surface species is manifest as a gradual change in the observed oscillation frequency. This effect, observed during the early stages of growth, shows strong temperature dependence, consistent with previous observations on SiGe alloys. Following several layers of growth, however, the surfaces become rough. The influence of this roughness on the oscillation frequency is also discussed.     

Direct evidence for the step density model in the initial stages of the layer-by-layer homoepitaxial growth of GaAs(111)A

Scanning tunnelling microscopy (STM) has been used to investigate the morphological basis of the specular beam intensity oscillations observed in reflection high-energy electron diffraction (RHEED) studies during the initial stages of GaAs(111)A homoepitaxy. Analysis of STM images after the deposition of controlled amounts of GaAs up to a coverage of 2 monolayers show a strong relationship between the step density and the RHEED specular beam intensity. It is shown that the RHEED oscillations observed during the initial stages of growth reflect the temporal variation in surface step density.     

Double diffraction spots in RHEED patterns from clean Ge(111) and Si(001) surfaces

In RHEED patterns from clean Ge(111) and Si(001) surfaces, extra diffraction spots have been observed with superlattice reflection spots due to Ge(111) 2 × 8 and Si(001) 2 × 1 surface structures. The extra spots have not been found out in many previous LEED and RHEED patterns of clean Ge(111) and Si(001) surfaces. When the Ge(111) and Si(001) samples were rotated about an axis normal to the surfaces so as to vary the incident direction of the primary electron beam, the intensity of the extra spots showed a remarkable dependence upon the incident direction and they became invisible in some incident directions, in spite of the experimental condition that an Ewald sphere intersected reciprocal lattice rods of the extra spots. In this study, the extra spots are understood as forbidden reflection spots resulting from double diffraction of superlattice reflections of the surface structures, and the remarkable dependence of their intensity upon the incident direction is explained in terms of excitation of the surface wave of the superlattice reflections. These results suggest that the intensity of diffraction spots in RHEED patterns may be greatly influenced by the surface wave excitation of fundamental and superlattice reflections.     

Investigation of a new method to control thin-film growth

Results of investigations of a possible application of RHEED azimuthal plots of characterize in situ epitaxially grown thin films are described. Dynamically calculated and measured azimuthal plots for Si(111) are compared. A set of azimuthal plots experimentally collected at different stages of preparation of a Si/YSi_2-x/Si(111)-7×7 layered structure are presented.     

Electrical conductance at initial stage in epitaxial growth of Pb on modified Si(1 1 1) surface

The electrical conductance and RHEED intensities as a function of the coverage have been measured during Pb depositions at 105 K on Si(1 1 1)-(6 × 6)Au with up to 4.2 ML of annealed Pb. The experiments show the strong influence of used substrates on the behavior of the conductance during the epitaxy of Pb atoms, especially for very initial stage of growth. Oscillations of the conductance during the layer-by-layer growth are correlated with RHEED intensity oscillations. The analysis of the conductance behavior is made according to the theory described by Trivedi and Aschcroft [N. Trivedi, N. Aschcroft, Phys. Rev. B 38 (1988) 12298].     

GaSb/AlSb/GaAs应变层结构的分子束外延生长

本文以反射式高能电子衍射(RHEED)和其强度振荡为监测手段,在半绝缘GaAs衬底上成功地生长GaSb/AlSb/GaAs应变层结构,RHEED图样表明,GaSb正常生长时为Sb稳定的C(2×6)结构,AlSb为稳定的(1×3)结构,作者观察并记录GaSb,AlSb生长时的RHEED强度振荡,并利用它成功地生长10个周期的GaSb/AlSb超晶格,透射电子显微镜照片显示界面平整、清晰,采用较厚的AlSb过渡层及适当的生长条件,可在半绝缘GaAs衬底上生长出质量好的GaSb外延层,其X射线双晶衍射半峰宽小于 关键词：     

Mechanism of structural changes of Si(111) surfaces subjected to low-energy ion pulses during molecular-beam epitaxy

Reflected high-energy electron diffraction (RHEED) and detection of the intensity oscillations of the specular reflection have been used to investigate morphological changes in Si(111) associated with the two-dimensional layer-by-layer mechanism of silicon growth from a molecular beam under conditions of pulsed (0.25–1 s) bombardment with low-energy (80–150 eV) Kr ions in the interval of small total radiative fluxes (10¹¹–10¹² cm²²), for which the density of radiation-generated defects is small in comparison with the surface density of the atoms. After pulsed ion bombardment an increase in the intensity of the specular reflection is observed if the degree of filling of the monolayer satisfies 0.5<θ<1. No increase in the intensity occurs during the initial stages of filling of the monolayer. The maximum amplitude increment of the oscillations is reached at θ≈0.8. The magnitude of the amplitude increment of the RHEED oscillations increases with temperature up to 400°C and then falls. At temperatures above 500°C amplification of the reflection intensity essentially vanishes. Experiments on multiple ion bombardment of each growing layer showed that the magnitude of the amplitude increment of the oscillations decreased as a function of the number of deposited layers (the order of the RHEED oscillation). A mechanism for the observed phenomena is proposed, based on the concept of surface reconstruction by pulsed ion bombardment accompanied by formation of a (7×7) superstructure, which corresponds to a decrease of the activation energy of surface diffusion of the adatoms. Within the framework of the proposed mechanism the results of Monte Carlo modeling agree with the main experimental data. Zh. éksp. Teor. Fiz. 114, 2055–2064 (December 1998)     

Computer modeling of morphological evolution and RHEED intensity oscillations of thin-film growth by laser molecular beam epitaxy

The morphological evolution of the unit cell by unit cell layer growth of thin films by laser molecular beam epitaxy (laser MBE) is simulated by the Monte Carlo (MC) method. As a more realistic simulation, the effect of the surface terrace on reflection high-energy electron diffraction (RHEED) intensity oscillations is considered in our model. The calculation shows that the surface terrace effect has an obvious influence on the intensity oscillation shapes. Moreover, we consider the growth units impinging on the surface batch by batch rather than one by one. It is found that the surface morphologies are different, with different numbers of units impinging by a laser pulse on the surface. Furthermore, the surface roughness increases with a decrease in substrate temperature and with an increase in the unit impinging rate (which is determined by the energy of each laser pulse). The validity of the growth model is demonstrated by comparing our MC-simulated RHEED intensity oscillations with those observed in laser MBE experiments.     

Sub-unit cell layer-by-layer growth of Fe<Subscript>3</Subscript>O<Subscript>4</Subscript>, MgO,and Sr<Subscript>2</Subscript>RuO<Subscript>4</Subscript> thin films

The use of oxide materials in oxide electronics requires their controlled epitaxial growth. Recently, it was shown that Reflection High Energy Electron Diffraction (RHEED) allows the growth of oxide thin films to be monitored, even at high oxygen pressures. Here, we report the sub-unit cell molecular or block layer growth of the oxide materials Sr₂RuO₄, MgO, and magnetite using Pulsed Laser Deposition (PLD) from stoichiometric targets. Whereas a single RHEED intensity oscillation is found to correspond to the growth of a single unit cell for perovskites such as SrTiO₃ or doped LaMnO₃, in materials where the unit cell is composed of several molecular layers or blocks with identical stoichiometry, sub-unit cell molecular or block layer growth is established, resulting in several RHEED intensity oscillations during the growth of a single unit cell. PACS 61.14.Hg; 74.76.Db; 75.70.-i; 81.15.Fg     

Imposed layer-by-layer growth by pulsed laser interval deposition

Pulsed Laser Deposition (PLD) has become a significant technique to study the thin film growth of novel materials. Here, one has benefited from the main advantages of PLD, the relative easy stoichiometric transfer of material from target to substrate and the almost free choice of (relatively high) background pressures. However, the applicability of PLD is still hampered, because real time in situ growth monitoring was almost not available. For example, Reflection High-Energy Electron Diffraction (RHEED) was limited to low background pressures only until recently. High pressure RHEED, which makes it possible to in situ monitor during deposition of oxides at the higher pressures, opened new possibilities [1]. Besides observed intensity oscillations due to layer by layer growth, enabling accurate growth rate control, it became clear that intensity relaxation observed due to the typical pulsed way of deposition leads to a wealth of information about growth parameters [2]. Here, PLD in combination with high pressure RHEED is used to study the influence of the different parameters on the growth mode, resulting in a new approach to impose layer by layer growth by interval deposition.     

Combined study of RHEED spot profiles and intensity oscillations during MBE growth of Ge on Ge(111)

The problem to define particular points in the growth sequence and to obtain quantitative data on the step-terrace structure of the growing surface is addressed in an analysis of RHEED spot profiles and intensity oscillations recorded simultaneously during MBE growth of Ge on Ge(111).     

Diffraction from stepped surfaces: I. Reversible surfaces

In electron or atom diffraction experiments on surfaces, the angular shapes of the diffracted beams depend upon the distribution of steps over the surface. In this paper we analyze diffracted beam profiles from stepped surfaces that are reversible. A reversible surface is one in which the pair correlation function over the surface is symmetric with respect to positive and negative directions. We show that the intensity profile across a diffracted beam can be separated into a sharp central spike due to the limit of the correlation function at large separation plus wings or shoulders due to the finite extent of the step disorder. Simple functional expressions for these angular profiles are obtained by a Markov method of treating a one-dimensional geometric distribution of steps. The result explicitly displays the deep structure found for the general case. The method reduces the calculation to a simple eigenvalue problem so that even the continuously changing step distributions that occur in epitaxial growth can be treated easily. As in the general case, the resulting intensity profile is a sharp central spike plus a step-broadened term which now is a sum of Lorentzians. The widths of the Lorentzians are the logarithms of the eigenvalues of the matrix of probabilities which describe the step distribution over the surface. This matrix method, which treats the surface as a Markov chain, also points the correct way to account for correlations between surface atoms for two-dimensional distributions of steps. For a two-dimensional surface one must consider a Markov Random Field as opposed to a simple multiplication of two one-dimensional results. We compare the results of the general calculation to the Si epitaxy experiments of Gronwald and Henzler. The coverage and momentum transfer dependencies of the shapes of the calculated profiles agree with their measurements. The calculation is also applied to the RHEED measurements of Van Hove et al. during GaAs MBE. The measured intensity oscillations can be accounted for by a cyclically changing one-dimensional geometric distribution of steps among three layers in which the third-layer scattering increases with time.     

Initial stages of Si-molecular beam epitaxy on Si(111) studied with reflection high-energy electron diffraction intensity measurements and Monte Carlo simulations

This is a report on the initial behaviour of homoepitaxial growth of Si on Si(111) based on reflection high-energy electron diffraction (RHEED) intensity measurements and kinetic solid-on-solid Monte Carlo simulations. A quenching of the first RHEED-oscillation corresponding to the first double layer is observed over a wide temperature range. This suppression could be simulated by introducing a defect related, extra activation energy for growth on top of the first and subsequently formed bilayers (BL). As a result of the increased activation energy, the interface width was shown to increase with the substrate temperature at the beginning of the deposition. The gradual return to regular BL-by-BL growth was accomplished by assigning an increased hopping probability to adatoms situated on top of step edges.     

Analysis of the oscillation intensity of RHEED specular reflection during the MBE growth of CaF<Subscript>2</Subscript>/Si/CaF<Subscript>2</Subscript> structures

The results of analysis of the oscillation intensity of RHEED specular reflection during the MBE growth of CaF₂/Si(111) structures in a wide temperature range from 100 to 600°С are presented. It is shown that the preliminary formation of a 2D Si buffer layer provides the two-dimensional growth of CaF₂ layers. Possible reasons which for the disruption of 2D growth at high substrate temperatures are discussed.     

Self-organized in-plane incorporation of Si atoms in GaAs by molecular beam epitaxy

The preferential attachment of Si atoms at misorientation steps on vicinal GaAs(001) surfaces has been studied by RHEED. By analysing the time evolution of the specular beam intensity and the change in surface reconstruction during Si deposition we show that a self-organized Si incorporation along the step edges takes place. The observed (3×2) structure is due to an ordered array of dimerized Si atoms with missing dimer rows. Taking into account the structure of the (3×2) unit mesh and its orientation with respect to the As-terminated or Ga-terminated steps, a characteristic minimum in the RHEED intensity recording corresponds to the number of Ga step-edge sites. Since the preferential path for Ga as well as for Si adatom diffusion is along the [110] direction, the critical terrace width for wirelike Si attachment is much larger for a misorientation toward (111)As than for a misorientation toward (111)Ga. Despite the high local impurity concentration, the Si-modified surface can be overgrown with GaAs without adverse effects on the growth front. This is promising for the fabrication of doping wires.