AVS 49th International Symposium
    Nanometer Structures Thursday Sessions
       Session NS-ThA

Paper NS-ThA8
Gadolinium Silicide on Si(100)

Thursday, November 7, 2002, 4:20 pm, Room C-207

Session: Nanowires
Presenter: B.C. Harrison, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Authors: B.C. Harrison, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
J.J. Boland, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
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The fabrication and characterization of nanoscale structures is motivated by the desire to produce materials and devices with novel optical, structural, and electronic properties. A large part of this effort involves discovering ways to replace current microelectronic technology with faster and cheaper nanostructures. One system of current interest is lanthanide silicide nanowires that spontaneously self-assemble on the Si(100) surface.@footnote 1,2,3@ The high aspect ratio, large mechanical strength, micrometer length scales, and metallic character@footnote 3@ suggest applications as nanoscale interconnects. However, these wires cannot be successfully used in electronic circuits until the morphology and placement is controlled and their electrical properties are well characterized. This study focuses on the morphology and electrical properties of Gadolinium silicide since this silicide has the smallest lattice constant mismatch in the wire growth direction of any of the available lanthanide silicides. Scanning Tunneling Microscopy (STM) is used to study the atomic structure of the nanowires and the wetting layer that grows by a Stranski-Krastanov mechanism while the local electrical properties of these structures are probed by STS. @FootnoteText@ @footnote 1@Chen, Y.; Ohlberg, D. A. A.; Williams, S. J. Appl. Phys. 2002, 91, 3213.@footnote 2@Chen, Y.; Ohlberg, D. A. A.; Medeiros-Riberio, G.; Chang, Y. A.; Williams, S. Appl. Phys. Lett. 2000, 76, 4004.@footnote 3@Nogami, J.; Liu, B. Z.; Katkov, M. V.; Ohbuchi, C.; Birge, N. O. Phys. Rev. B 2001, 63, 233305-1. .