Atomic structures of silicon and metal surfaces; pulsed-laser tof atom-probe and field ion microscopy

The atomic structure of a solid surface can be imaged with the field ion microscope and the chemical species of surface atoms can be identified by the time-of-flight atom-probe. By combining a pulsed-laser technique to field ion microscopy, atomic processes in surface reconstruction and growth of thin films can be studied with a resolution of 2.5 Å, and in time steps of a few nanoseconds. The mass resolution and material applicability of a pulsed-laser time-of-flight atom-probe are greatly improved. Thus materials of poor conductivity such as high purity silicon can be analyzed with excellent mass resolution. It is also ionion energy analyzer with an accuracy and resolution of 2 parts per 100 000 and an ion reaction and dissociation time analyzer of 20 fs time resolution. Some recent studies with these techniques such as (1) surface reconstruction of Pt and Ir(001) and (110) surfaces, (2) observation of well ordered and atomically resolved images of pure silicon surfaces and surface reconstruction of many surfaces of silicon, and (3) formation of multiple charge cluster ions and dissociation of compound ions by atomic tunneling in an electric field etc., will be briefly described. We want to emphasize that recent studies of Si and metal surfaces are concerned with atomic structures of thermally equilibrated surfaces, and not with field evaporated surfaces as in earlier studies.