IUVSTA 15th International Vacuum Congress (IVC-15), AVS 48th International Symposium (AVS-48), 11th International Conference on Solid Surfaces (ICSS-11)
    Electronics Wednesday Sessions
       Session EL-WeM

Invited Paper EL-WeM1
Step Motion and Morphology on Si(111)

Wednesday, October 31, 2001, 8:20 am, Room 124

Session: Si Surface Dynamics and Reactions
Presenter: M.S. Altman, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology
Correspondent: Click to Email
Surface steps are of interest for their role as templates for growth. Step morphology determined by thermodynamics can be influenced through step motion kinetics. Low energy electron microscopy observations of step flow, island nucleation and growth, and spiral growth at screw dislocations are the basis for studying step motion kinetics and the influence of surfactants upon growth. Sb and In surfactants are found to have notable and opposite influence on step kinetics. These results demonstrate that surfactants can be used to controlkinetically driven morphological instabilities, i.e., bunching and meandering, in step flow motion, and support the view that surfactants function at least partially through step passivation. However, surface phase separation is also observed as a consequence of surfactant incorporation during growth, which leads to a distinct step flow instability. Self-organized periodic step bunching patterns on vicinal surfaces will also be discussed.