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Thermal evolution of Co islands on Ag/Si(111)‐√3 × √3 and Ag/Ge(111)‐√3 × √3 surfaces
Author(s) -
Tsay SungLin,
Kuo ChangYu,
Lin ChunLiang,
Chen WenChen,
Fu TsuYi
Publication year - 2008
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.2897
Subject(s) - scanning tunneling microscope , crystallography , annealing (glass) , nucleation , low energy electron diffraction , trimer , electron diffraction , alloy , chemistry , materials science , diffraction , nanotechnology , dimer , metallurgy , optics , physics , organic chemistry
Abstract Thermal evolution of Co islands on Ag/Ge(111)‐√3 × √3 and Ag/Si(111)‐√3 × √3 surfaces was studied by scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) and low‐energy electron diffraction (LEED). Ag‐√3 × √3 buffer layer can avoid alloy formation of Co and Si or Ge below the annealing temperature 500 °C. The growth behavior of Co on Ag/Si(111)‐√3 × √3 surfaces is very different from that on Ag/Ge(111)‐√3 × √3 surfaces, although both the √3 structures can be classified as honeycomb chain trimer (HCT) model. Submonolayer Co on Ag/Si(111)‐√3 × √3 surfaces prefer to form clusters below 500 °C. However, Co clusters nucleate and construct two‐dimensional islands (2D islands) on Ag/Ge(111)‐√3 × √3 surfaces after annealing to 300 °C. The result of different growth behavior comes from two major factors. One is antiphase boundaries (APBs) with extra electron states, which trap Co clusters on Ag/Si(111)‐√3 × √3 surfaces. The other is the strong binding force that exists between Ge and Co atoms to cause the formation of Co period islands on Ag/Ge(111)‐√3 × √3 surfaces. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.