| CROSS-DISCIPLINARY PHYSICS AND RELATED AREAS OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY |
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Growth of Atomically Flat Ultra-Thin Ag Films on Si(111) by Introducing a √3×√3-Ga Buffer Layer |
| HE Jie-Hui1**, JIANG Li-Qun1, QIU Jing-Lan2, CHEN Lan2, WU Ke-Hui2 |
1Department of Information Science and Engineering, Hunan University of Humanities, Science and Technology, Loudi 417000
2Institute of Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100190
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| Cite this article: |
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HE Jie-Hui, JIANG Li-Qun, QIU Jing-Lan et al 2014 Chin. Phys. Lett. 31 128102 |
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Abstract It is known that, when Ag is deposited on Si(111)-7×7 substrates in a conventional growth procedure at room temperature, no atomically flat Ag film could be obtained. We use scanning tunneling microscopy and low-energy electron diffraction to investigate the growth of ultra-thin Ag films on the Si(111) substrates at room temperature. Our study reveals that, upon introducing a Si(111)-√3×√3-Ga buffer layer, atomically flat Ag films can easily grow on Si(111) with a critical thickness of two monolayers. Moreover, Ag film growth follows a layer-by-layer mode with further deposition. This novel growth behavior of Ag can be explained in terms of a free electron model (i.e., particle in a box) and kinetic Monte Carlo simulations.
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Published: 12 January 2015
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| PACS: |
81.15.-z
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(Methods of deposition of films and coatings; film growth and epitaxy)
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68.55.-a
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(Thin film structure and morphology)
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68.37.Ef
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(Scanning tunneling microscopy (including chemistry induced with STM))
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