Self-limiting cyclic growth of gallium droplets on Si(111)

Self-limiting cyclic growth of gallium droplets on Si(111)

Peer-reviewed article not indexed in WoS or Scopus

In this paper the growth of Ga droplets on a vicinal Si(111) surface is discussed. We report that the droplet size can be controlled down to the sub-100 nm range by carefully chosen deposition conditions. In addition, the dependence of the droplet size on deposition time is not monotonic, but shows self-limiting behaviour: with increasing amount of Ga on the surface the droplets stop increasing in lateral dimension and, instead, additional droplets of the same size are formed on the surface. Further, in the case of deposition at 300 C substrate temperature it has been found that the growth proceeds in cycles. Thus, not only the size but also the droplet concentration can be controlled. In this way, non-ordered arrays of metallic droplets with a very narrow size distribution can be grown.

In this paper the growth of Ga droplets on a vicinal Si(111) surface is discussed. We report that the droplet size can be controlled down to the sub-100 nm range by carefully chosen deposition conditions. In addition, the dependence of the droplet size on deposition time is not monotonic, but shows self-limiting behaviour: with increasing amount of Ga on the surface the droplets stop increasing in lateral dimension and, instead, additional droplets of the same size are formed on the surface. Further, in the case of deposition at 300 C substrate temperature it has been found that the growth proceeds in cycles. Thus, not only the size but also the droplet concentration can be controlled. In this way, non-ordered arrays of metallic droplets with a very narrow size distribution can be grown.

Ga, Si(111), Ostwald rippening, cyclic growth

Ga, Si(111), Ostwald rippening, cyclic growth

KOLÍBAL, M.; ČECHAL, T.; KOLÍBALOVÁ, E.; ČECHAL, J.; ŠIKOLA, T.

2010

26.11.2008

0957-4484

NANOTECHNOLOGY

19

46

United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland

475606-1

475606-5

5