Growing extremely thin bulklike metal film on a semiconductor surface: Monolayer Al(111) on Si(111)

Journal Article · Mon Oct 29 00:00:00 EDT 2007 · Applied Physics Letters

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1063/1.2804010· OSTI ID:1344759

Jiang, Ying; Kim, Yong-Hyun; Zhang, S. B.; Ebert, Philipp; Yang, Shenyuan; Tang, Zhe; Wu, Kehui; Wang, E. G.

We report combined scanning tunneling microscopy, x-ray photoelectron emission spectroscopy, electron energy loss spectroscopy, and theoretical study of the growth of ultrathin Al film on the Si(111) substrate. We show that by (i) a modification of the substrate reconstruction with a √3×√3 surface and (ii) a choice of materials with commensurate lattices, atomically flat film can be obtained even at the ultimate one monolayer limit, while maintaining a bulklike atomic structure. Detailed analysis shows that this monolayer Al(111)-1×1Al(111)-1×1 film is electronically decoupled from the Si substrate, and it shows metallic characteristics.

• Research Organization: National Renewable Energy Lab. (NREL), Golden, CO (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES)
• DOE Contract Number: AC36-08GO28308
• OSTI ID: 1344759
• Report Number(s): NREL/JA-590-42603
• Journal Information: Applied Physics Letters, Vol. 91, Issue 18; ISSN 0003-6951
• Publisher: American Institute of Physics (AIP)
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

14 SOLAR ENERGY
36 MATERIALS SCIENCE
metallic thin films
thin films
semiconductor surfaces
monolayers