Interaction of iron atoms with the silicon surface coated with a native oxide layer

The solid-phase epitaxy of iron silicide on the Si(111) surface coated with a native oxide layer is studied by high-resolution photoelectron spectroscopy using synchrotron radiation and by atomic force microscopy. The iron deposition dose changes up to 1 nm, and the annealing temperature changes up to 500°C. At room temperature, the native oxide layer is shown to be impermeable to Fe atoms and an iron film grows on the sample surface. An increase in the annealing temperature to ～100°C results in a change in the film morphology, increasing its heterogeneity. As the annealing temperature increases to ～250°C, Fe and Si atoms diffuse through the oxide layer and undergo a solid-phase reaction. As a result, stable iron monosilicide ?-FeSi forms.     

Processes of silicide formation in the Fe/Si(111)7 × 7 system

The initial stages of the formation of iron silicides in the Fe/Si(111)7 × 7 system in the course of solid-phase epitaxy are investigated using high-resolution photoelectron spectroscopy (～100 meV) with synchrotron radiation. The spectra of the Si 2p core and valence-band electrons obtained after deposition of iron coverages of up to 28 monolayers on the surface of the sample and subsequent isochronous annealings at 650°C are measured and analyzed. It is shown that the first to form under Fe deposition is an ultrathin film of the metastable silicide FeSi with a CsCl-type structure, on which a layer of the Fe-Si solid solution with segregated silicon grows. At coverages in excess of 10 monolayers, an iron film grows on the surface of the sample. Annealing of a silicon crystal coated with a Fe layer leads to the sequential formation of two stable silicide phases, namely, the ?-FeSi and β-FeSi₂ phases, in the near-surface region of the sample. It is found that the process of solid-phase synthesis of the ?-FeSi phase passes through the stage of transformation of the iron film into the Fe-Si solid solution.     

Solid-phase synthesis of manganese silicides on the Si(100)2 × 1 surface

The solid-phase synthesis of manganese silicides on the Si(100)2 × 1 surface coated at room temperature by a 2-nm-thick manganese film has been investigated using high-energy-resolution photoelectron spectroscopy with synchrotron radiation. The dynamics of variation of the phase composition and electronic structure of the near-surface region with increasing sample annealing temperature to 600°C, has been revealed. It has been shown that, under these conditions, a solid solution of silicon in manganese, metallic manganese monosilicide MnSi, and semiconductor silicide MnSi_1.7 are successively formed on the silicon surface. The films of both silicides are not continuous, with the fraction of the substrate surface occupied by them decreasing with increasing annealing temperature. The binding energies of the Si 2p and Mn 3p electrons in the compounds synthesized have been determined.     

A new nanocluster carbyne-based material synthesized under high pressure

The DC and AC conductivities and the magnetoresistance and thermopower of carbyne samples were studied over the temperature range 1.8–300 K at frequencies 10 MHz–1 GHz. It was established that a variation in the fraction of sp ² bonds in carbynes induces a transition from one-to two-and then to three-dimensional conduction. The physical properties of the new carbyne-based solids may be understood within the model treating carbyne as a nanocluster material based on linear carbon chains and having a characteristic cluster size of 1 to 10 nm.     

One-loop divergences in theories with an arbitrary nonminimal operator in curved space

We construct an explicit formula for the divergent part of the one-loop effective action for an arbitrary nonminimal operator in curved four-dimensional space. Translated from Teoreticheskaya i Matematicheskaya Fizika, Vol. 110, No. 3, pp. 351–371, March, 1997.     

Role of the electron forward-focusing effect in the formation of Kikuchi patterns of single-crystal silicon

Kikuchi patterns produced by quasi-elastic backscattering of electrons with energies of 0.6–2 keV from a thin Si(111)7×7 near-surface layer are studied. It is shown that experimental data obtained for silicon, just like those for metals, can be described satisfactorily by calculations made in single-scattering cluster approximation, as well as in terms of a model taking phenomenologically into account the forward-focusing of backscattered electrons as they escape from the crystal. It has thus been demonstrated that the forward-focusing effect at an energy E=2 keV plays a dominant role in the formation of Kikuchi patterns, which permits their use for visualization of the atomic structure of a surface. The dependences of the focusing efficiency on the parameters of the atomic chains along which electrons propagate have been established for the closest-packed crystal directions. Fiz. Tverd. Tela (St. Petersburg) 39, 752–757 (April 1997)     

Onset of a nonoptimal hopping regime for ac conductivity in amorphous gallium antimonide

A possible explanation has been found for the typical discrepancy between the parameters of localized states as determined from the static and dynamic hopping conductivities in tetrahedral amorphous semiconductors. It is shown for the example of a-GaSb that the Mott hopping length R _opt, the correlation length for nonoptimal hops L _T , and the ac hopping length R _ω are related as R _opt <L _T <R _ω , as a result of which the Mott law holds for the dc conductivity and the Zvyagin regime of nonoptimal hops holds for the ac conductivity σ(ω). The observed value of σ(ω) is two orders of magnitude lower than the conductivity calculated by the Austin-Mott formula for the parameters of localized states found from dc measurements. A model that quantitatively describes the static and dynamic conductivity of a-GaSb with the aid of a single set of parameters characterizing the Miller-Abrahams resistor network is proposed. Pis’ma Zh. éksp. Teor. Fiz. 65, No. 4, 322–327 (25 February 1997)     

Low-temperature properties of a quantum Fermi gas in curved space-time

We consider the behavior of an ideal quantum Fermi gas in curved space-time. We obtain and analyze the expressions for the densities of the Helmholtz free energy and grand thermodynamic potential in this case. We find the dependence of chemical potential and Fermi energy on the curvature of space-time and compute the explicit expression for the chemical potential of a Fermi gas at high densities and in the low-temperature approximation.