2008 Volume 6 Pages 45-48
We have studied surface morphology and surface reconstruction of an Al adsorbed Si(113) surface using a scanning tunneling microscope. A clean Si(113) surface is atomically flat, but well-ordered one-dimensional (1D) nano-facet structures with their width of about 2.5 nm are formed on this surface after 1 ML of Al deposition. In the faceting process, the initial stage is Al atoms replacement with Si atoms at 0.4 ML of Al deposition. Replaced Si atoms stick to steps, causing the change of steps shape. These Si atoms also form two-dimensional (2D) islands. The next stage is growth of 2D islands toward [-3-32] direction at 0.6 ML of Al deposition. At this coverage, 2D islands consist of (-961), (6-91), and (33-2) steps. For further Al deposition, (-961) and (6-91) steps become unstable and (33-2) and (-3-32) steps become stable. Finally, (33-2) and (-3-32) steps change into two kinds of nano-facet structures, i.e. (112) and (115) facets. On the (112) facet, a mixture of N × 1 structures (N = 3-8) is observed. The most abundant value of N is 6, which well agrees with the first principle calculation. While on the (115) facet, 4 × 1 structures are observed. [DOI: 10.1380/ejssnt.2008.45]