IUVSTA 15th International Vacuum Congress (IVC-15), AVS 48th International Symposium (AVS-48), 11th International Conference on Solid Surfaces (ICSS-11)
    Semiconductors Friday Sessions
       Session SC+SS-FrM

Paper SC+SS-FrM7
Role of Surface Steps in the Arrangement of Silicon Nano-dots on Vicinal Si(111) Surfaces: STM Investigation

Friday, November 2, 2001, 10:20 am, Room 111

Session: Growth and Epitaxy of Semiconductors
Presenter: J.S. Ha, ETRI, Republic of Korea
Authors: J.S. Ha, ETRI, Republic of Korea
K.-H. Park, ETRI, Republic of Korea
Y.-J. Ko, ETRI, Republic of Korea
K. Park, ETRI, Republic of Korea
Correspondent: Click to Email
Regular array of nano-structures such as dots and wires can be obtained by elaborate control of chemical reactions on stepped surfaces. In this work, we have investigated the role of surface steps in the arrangement of silicon nano-dots on vicinal Si(111) surfaces by scanning tunneling microscopy(STM). Nanometer sized silicon nitride islands were formed on a vicinal Si(111) surface, which was 1@super o@ off toward [112] direction, via thermal nitridation using N@sub 2@ gas. On the nitrided surface, oxygen gas was dosed at 700 @super o@C to induce a local selective etching of silicon using silicon nitride islands as masks. The resultant surface showed one-dimensional arrangement of silicon nano-dots along the step edges of the silicon surface. The lateral size of the dot in the direction perpendicular to the step edges was restricted to the terrace width of the stepped Si(111) surface. Preferential growth of silicon nitride islands on the edges of single height steps is considered to be responsible for the arrangement of silicon nano-dots along the step edges of the 1 @super o@ off vicinal Si(111) surface. Furthermore, comparative STM studies to investigate the role of surface steps, which were done on Si(111) surfaces with miscut angles of 0.1@super o@ and 4@super o@ off toward [110] direction, will be also discussed.