IUVSTA 15th International Vacuum Congress (IVC-15), AVS 48th International Symposium (AVS-48), 11th International Conference on Solid Surfaces (ICSS-11)
    Surface Science Thursday Sessions
       Session SS2-ThA

Paper SS2-ThA7
Scanning-tunneling/Atomic-force Microscopy Study of the Growth of KBr Films on InSb(001)

Thursday, November 1, 2001, 4:00 pm, Room 122

Session: Nucleation & Growth
Presenter: J.J. Kolodziej, Jagiellonian University, Poland
Authors: J.J. Kolodziej, Jagiellonian University, Poland
B. Such, Jagiellonian University, Poland
P. Czuba, Jagiellonian University, Poland
P. Piatkowski, Jagiellonian University, Poland
F. Krok, Jagiellonian University, Poland
M. Szymonski, Jagiellonian University, Poland
Correspondent: Click to Email
Thin epitaxial KBr films have been grown on InSb (001) surface. Scanning tunneling and non-contact atomic-force microscopy in ultra-high vacuum has been used to study surface structures generated during growth, for coverages ranging from 0.3 to 120 ML. It is found that in submonolayer coverage regime oval-shaped islands of monatomic thickness are formed. These islands are often cut along <1 1 0> crystallographic direction and the distribution of these islands on the substrate surface is anisotropic reflecting anisotropic diffusion of KBr molecules during the growth. The KBr/InSb interface is likely to be stabilized by a bond between the halide ion and AIII atoms arranged in chains on InSb. At 1 - 1.5 ML coverage continuous KBr film is formed and the material in excess of 1 ML forms rectangular islands with edges oriented along <100> and <010> directions on the surface. For multilayer coverages pyramidal structures of rectangular bases are formed indicative of slow diffusion of KBr molecules down across steps. These rough KBr films can be, as a result of thermal annealing, converted to flat films exposing large (> 0.1 micrometer), atomically flat (100) terraces.