Abstract
The process of nucleation of 2D islands near a monatomic step at the initial stage of growing of a silicon film on the Si(111)-(7 × 7) surface is studied by means of in situ ultrahighvacuum reflection electron microscopy. The dependence of the depletion region width W near the step, where no islands are formed, on the deposition rate R is described by the expression W 2 ∝ R -χ with the exponent χ = 1.18 and χ = 0.63 at temperatures of 650 and 680 °C, respectively. It is demonstrated that the change in χ is associated with the step structure, which provides the transformation from the growth kinetics limited by attachment of adatoms to the step to that limited by diffusion of adatoms. A competition of the processes of nucleation and attachment to the step leads to an increase in the critical size of the island nucleus from i = 1 far from the step to i = 3–5 near the step and to i = 6–8 on the terrace of critical width for 2D nucleation.
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Original Russian Text © D.I. Rogilo, N.E. Rybin, S.S. Kosolobov, L.I. Fedina, A.V. Latyshev, 2016, published in Avtometriya, 2016, Vol. 52, No. 3, pp. 86–92.
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Rogilo, D.I., Rybin, N.E., Kosolobov, S.S. et al. Nucleation of two-dimensional Si islands near a monatomic step on an atomically clean Si(111)-(7×7) surface. Optoelectron.Instrument.Proc. 52, 286–291 (2016). https://doi.org/10.3103/S8756699016030110
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.3103/S8756699016030110