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Morphological evolution of erbium disilicide nanowires on Si(001)
Author(s) -
Yang Jianshu,
Cai Qun,
Wang X.D.,
Koch R.
Publication year - 2004
Publication title -
surface and interface analysis
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.52
H-Index - 90
eISSN - 1096-9918
pISSN - 0142-2421
DOI - 10.1002/sia.1662
Subject(s) - erbium , nanowire , materials science , nanotechnology , metallurgy , optoelectronics , doping
The morphological evolution of ErSi 2 nanowires on Si(001) with Er coverage was investigated by scanning tunnelling microscopy, low‐energy electron diffraction and x‐ray diffraction. At low Er coverages, elongated ErSi 2 nanowires in a hexagonal crystal structure are formed. The nanowires are exclusively oriented perpendicular to the dimer rows of the Si(001) substrate, thus suggesting a method to control the nanowire arrangement via the substrate configuration. At 3 ML of Er rectangular islands with flat tops are observed, which crystallize in the tetragonal lattice of ErSi 2 . Our experiments suggest that the structural transformation from hexagonal to tetragonal takes place when the nanostructures reach the height of the c ‐axis of the tetragonal unit cell. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.