STM studies of 1-D noble metal growth on silicon

Our scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) studies show that noble metals (Ag, Au) Form a wide variety of I-D structures on the high-index Si(5 5 12) surface. At coverages below 0.25 monolayer (ML), both metals grow as overlayer rows: with an inter-row spacing of similar to 5nm. At higher coverages and annealing temperatures, the underlying Si reconstruction is removed, but periodic row structures persist. Au can also induce faceting to nearby planes, e.g. (7 7 15) and (2 2 5), at temperatures above 500 degreesC. For all coverages and annealing temperatures studied here (0.02-1 ML. 450-800 degreesC), the Si(5 5 12) template initiates I-D growth of the deposited noble metals, (C) 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.