RHEED Studies of MBE-grown Aluminium Layers on {111}-Oriented Silicon Substrates

Thin Al-layers were prepared by Knudsen-type evaporation of Al onto {111} Si in a custom built UHV-reactor. Epitaxial growth was found on clean substrate surfaces with (7 × 7) reconstruction. In situ RHEED provides the epitaxial relationship The epitaxial films show a twelve-fold symmetry axis according to the combination of the 4-fold and 3-fold symmetry of the {001} deposit plane and of the substrate surface, respectively.