MBE fabrication of self-assembled Si and metal nanostructures on Si surfaces

Two types of fairly regular distributions of Si nanostructures, of interest as templates to grow spatially controlled ensembles of metal (Co, Fe, Ag, etc.) nanostructures, are presented in this paper. Both of them are achieved by self-assembling processes during Si homoepitaxy. One corresponds to films grown by molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) on Si(0 0 1)-2 × 1 surfaces with low (<1°) miscut angles. In this case, arrays of 3D Si-islands displaying well defined pyramid-like shapes can be obtained, as evidenced by Scanning Force Microscopy (SFM) and Scanning Transmission Electron Microscopy (STEM). Such arrays exhibit strong similarities with those reported for Ge and SiGe islands on Si(0 0 1), and may thus serve as a simpler route to produce ordered distributions of metallic nanodots. On the other hand, on Si(1 1 1)-7 × 7 vicinal substrates misoriented 4° toward the direction, step rearrangement during homoepitaxy permits to produce nanopatterned surfaces, the building-blocks of which are triangular (1 1 1) platforms, with lateral dimensions of hundreds of nanometers, bound by step bunches about 30 nm high. Furthermore, different Ag deposition experiments support this spontaneous patterning on Si(1 1 1) as a promising approach to achieve regular distributions of metallic nanocrystals with an overall homogeneity in sizes, shapes and spacing.