AVS 46th International Symposium
    Surface Science Division Tuesday Sessions
       Session SS2+EM-TuA

Paper SS2+EM-TuA6
A Variable Temperature Scanning Tunnelling Microscopy Study of Si(100) Etching Dynamics

Tuesday, October 26, 1999, 3:40 pm, Room 6C

Session: Semiconductor Surface Chemistry
Presenter: C.F. Herrmann, University of North Carolina
Authors: C.F. Herrmann, University of North Carolina
J.J. Boland, University of North Carolina
Correspondent: Click to Email
The etching behavior of bromine on the Si(100) surface was investigated using variable temperature scanning tunneling microscopy (VT-STM). The clean Si(100) was initially dosed with bromine to passivate the surface. The passivated surface was then heated slowly and imaged simultaneously with no additional bromine exposure. STM images were taken at several temperatures from 600K to 750K to study the etching dynamics of Si(100) with bromine. The initial distribution of vacancies peaked at a single dimer unit and decayed monotonically to higher lengths. After further heating, repartitioning was observed and dimer vacancies of odd lengths were preferentially formed. The motion of single dimer vacancies was also observed in addition to a novel etching structure. The implications for chemical etching are discussed.