An initial phase of Ge hut array formation at low temperature on Si(001)

Abstract

We report a direct STM observation of Ge hut array nucleation on the Si(001) surface during ultrahigh vacuum molecular-beam epitaxy at 360C. Nuclei of pyramids and wedges have been observed on the wetting layer MxN patches starting from the coverage of about 5.1 Å (~3.6 ML). Further development of hut arrays consists in simultaneous growth of the formerly appeared clusters and nucleation of new ones resulting in gradual rise of hut number density with increasing surface coverage. Huts nucleate reconstructing the patch surface from the usual c(4x2) or p(2x2) structure to one of two recently described formations composed by epitaxially oriented Ge dimer pairs and chains of four dimers.

Extended discussion; to appear in J. Appl. Phys., 2011

References in corpus (5)

• Nucleation of Ge quantum dots on the Si(001) surface
• CMOS compatible dense arrays of Ge quantum dots on the Si(001) surface: Hut cluster nucleation, atomic structure, and array life cycle during UHV MBE growth
• STM and RHEED study of the Si(001)-c(8x8) surface
• Phase transition on the Si(001) clean surface prepared in UHV MBE chamber: A study by high resolution STM and in situ RHEED
• Atomic structure of Ge quantum dots on the Si(001) surface

Cited by in corpus (10)

• Monolithic growth of ultra-thin Ge nanowires on Si(001)
• Ge quantum dot arrays grown by ultrahigh vacuum molecular beam epitaxy on the Si(001) surface: nucleation, morphology and CMOS compatibility
• Nucleation of Ge clusters at high temperatures on Ge/Si(001) wetting layer
• Ge/Si(001) heterostructures with dense arrays of Ge quantum dots: morphology, defects, photo-emf spectra and terahertz conductivity
• Peculiarities and evolution of Raman spectra of multilayer Ge/Si(001) heterostructures containing arrays of low-temperature MBE-grown Ge quantum dots of different size and number density: Experimental studies and numerical simulations
• Evidence for Kinetic Limitations as a Controlling Factor of Ge Pyramid Formation: a Study of Structural Features of Ge/Si(001) Wetting Layer Formed by Ge Deposition at Room Temperature Followed by Annealing at 600 °C
• On atomic structure of Ge huts growing on the Ge/Si(001) wetting layer
• The formation of intermediate layers in covered Ge/Si heterostructures with low-temperature quantum dots: a study using high-resolution transmission electron microscopy and Raman spectroscopy
• Evolution of Ge wetting layers growing on smooth and rough Si (001) surfaces: isolated {105} facets as a kinetic factor of stress relaxation
• Ge clusters and wetting layers forming from granular films on the Si(001) surface