AVS 52nd International Symposium
    Surface Science Wednesday Sessions
       Session SS1-WeM

Paper SS1-WeM8
Ostwald Ripening of Manganese Silicide Islands on Si(001)

Wednesday, November 2, 2005, 10:40 am, Room 200

Session: Growth and Alloying of Surfaces
Presenter: M.R. Krause, University at Albany SUNY
Authors: M.R. Krause, University at Albany SUNY
A. Stollenwerk, University at Albany SUNY
J. Reed, University at Albany SUNY
V.P. LaBella, University at Albany SUNY
Correspondent: Click to Email
Theoretical considerations suggest that epitaxial MnSi thin films should order ferromagnetically on Si(001)@footnote 1@ and it has been demonstrated that Si can be made ferromagnetic well above room temperature by Mn ion implantation.@footnote 2@ These recent discoveries indicate that the Mn-Si system may have potential to be utilized as a spin injector in future spintronics devices. Therefore the deposition of Mn onto Si(001) in the submonolayer regime has been studied with scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) to gain insight into the bonding and energetics of Mn with Si. The as deposited Mn films at room temperature are unstructured. Upon annealing to 300-500°C no smooth films but clusters of Mn or Mn@sub x@Si@sub y@ form while between the clusters the Si(001)-(2x1) reconstruction becomes visible. With increasing annealing time the density of clusters per surface area decreases while the average size of the remaining clusters increases. The time dependence of the coarsening shows the typical characteristics of Ostwald Ripening (OR). The cluster density and average cluster size will be presented as a function of annealing time for different initial Mn coverages. The results will be discussed within the framework of the OR theory. @FootnoteText@ @footnote 1@H. Wu, et al. Phys. Rev. Lett. 92 237202 (2004). @footnote 2@M. Bolduc et al. Phys. Rev. B 71 033302 (2005).