Adsorption and diffusion of Si adatom near single-layer steps on Si surface

By use of the empirical tight-binding （ETB） method, the adsorption and diffusion behaviours ot single sllmon adatom on the reconstructed Si（100） surface with single-layer steps are simulated. The adsorption energies around the SA step, nonrebonded SB step, rebonded SB step, and rough SB step with a kink structure are specially mapped out in this paper, from which the favourable binding sites and several possible diffusion paths are achieved. Because of the rebonded and kink structures, the SB step is more ~uitable for the attachment of Si adatom than the SA step or defective surface.     

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.     

Adsorption and diffusion of a Si adatom on the H/Si(1 1 1) surface: comparison with the H/Si(0 0 1) surface

Using a first-principles method, we investigate the adsorption and diffusion of a Si adatom on the H-terminated Si(1 1 1) substrate, which would be useful in understanding the initial stages of Si homoepitaxy using a H surfactant. The adatom substitutes H atom(s) to form a monohydride structure or a dihydride structure. In forming the monohydride structure, the energy barrier for H substitution is absent. The adatom migrates on the surface with alternating its chemical state between monohydride and dihydride. These behaviors of the adatom are quite similar to those on the H/Si(0 0 1)2 × 1 surface, despite the significant difference in the substrate structure between both orientations. The resulting diffusion barrier is 1.30 eV, which is also comparable to that on the H/Si(0 0 1)2 × 1 surface.     

Dimer-anticorrelation-induced stabilization of adsorbate clustering on the Si100-(2 x 1) surface

It is well established that absorbate-absorbate interactions play a key role in determining the distribution of adsorbates on surfaces. In cases where these interactions are repulsive adsorbates frequently arrange so as to minimize these unfavorable interactions. This simple picture, however, neglects the influence of adsorption on the properties on the underlying substrate. Here, using STM, we show that on Si(100) many intrinsically repulsive adsorbates cluster to form surface patches even at low surface coverages. With the aid of density functional theory calculations and Monte Carlo simulations, we show that patch formation is an intrinsic property of the Si(100) surface that is driven by the energy lowering associated with the formation of extended regions of bare dimers. The enhanced attraction between anticorrelated tilted bare dimers is sufficient to offset the repulsions between adsorbates.     

Vacancy dynamics and reorganization on bromine-etched Si(100)-(2 x 1) surfaces

Halogen etching of Si(100) surfaces has long been considered to involve the selective removal of atoms from an essentially static surface. Here we show that vacancy sites produced by etching are mobile at elevated temperature and rearrange to form features that were considered to be the direct products of etching. We demonstrate that the etch features observed at different temperatures are not due to different mechanisms. Rather, kinetic etch products formed at low temperatures are transformed into thermodynamically more stable features at higher temperatures.