Skip to main content
U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Scientific and Technical Information

STM measurements of the interaction of vacancies and steps during low-energy-ion bombardment of Si(001)

Technical Report ·
OSTI ID:61717

We create mobile surface vacancies on vicinal Si(001) by bombarding the surface with 300 eV Xe ions at a substrate temperature of 465{degrees}C. The vacancies preferentially annihilate at the rough steps retracting them with respect to their smooth neighbors. This process leads to a bimodal terrace width distribution. The retraction of the rough steps due to the vacancy annihilation is in competition with the healing process by which the surface tries to maintain its equilibrium configuration of equally spaced steps. As the two competing processes balance, the surface reaches steady state and subsequent removal of surface atoms is manifest as simple step flow.

Research Organization:
Sandia National Labs., Albuquerque, NM (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE, Washington, DC (United States)
DOE Contract Number:
AC04-94AL85000
OSTI ID:
61717
Report Number(s):
SAND--95-0594; ON: DE95010935
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English

Similar Records

Faceting and the orientational phase diagram of stepped Pt(001) surfaces
Journal Article · Wed Jun 15 00:00:00 EDT 1994 · Physical Review, B: Condensed Matter; (United States) · OSTI ID:7275707

Interplay between elastic interactions and kinetic processes in stepped Si (001) homoepitaxy
Journal Article · Thu Nov 30 23:00:00 EST 2006 · Physical Review B · OSTI ID:931902

Grazing-incidence x-ray-scattering study of step-step correlations on Si(001) surfaces
Journal Article · Wed Apr 15 00:00:00 EDT 1992 · Physical Review, B: Condensed Matter; (United States) · OSTI ID:7237824