Step arrangement design and nanostructure self-organization on Si surfaces

A novel technique for wafer-scale rt arrangement of atomic steps due to misorientation on the Si(111) surfaces is proposed. The process controls step motion at high temperatures by using patterns formed on the surfaces in advance. With high-temperature annealing, steps originally randomly distributed on the surface are rearranged along the pattern and remain ordered on the surface after the initial pattern has disappeared. During this process, a nanostructure consisting of step-bunched and debunched areas is self-organized and forms a micro-step-network. Another application of this process is the formation of ultralarge-scale step-free surfaces. By controlling step behavior on patterned surfaces, a step spacing as large as 10 mu m can be obtained. This paper also compares heating in an ultrahigh vacuum with furnace annealing in hydrogen atmosphere and shows that both techniques can be used for designing step arrangements.