Holmium deposition on the Si͑001͒ surface at elevated temperature results in the formation of Ho silicide islands coexisting with a Ho reconstructed substrate surface. At metal coverages below a monolayer, most of the islands are highly elongated nanowires. Structural details of both the reconstructions and the nanowires derived from scanning tunneling microscope data are presented. In addition, scanning tunneling spectroscopy shows that the nanowires are more metallic than either the reconstructed surface, or large silicide islands.
The role of the In/Si(111)-(4 x 1)-In surface as an atomic-scale geometrical template for the growth of Ag thin films is clarified by scanning tunneling microscopy and low energy electron diffraction. Low-temperature grown Ag films are found to have stripe structures with a transverse periodicity equal to that of indium chains of the In/Si(111)-(4 x 1)-In. The stripes exhibit a structural transformation at the thickness of 6 monolayers (ML); this relaxation allows the stripes to persist up to a thickness as large as 30 ML (approximately = 7 nm) while maintaining their mean periodicity. We attribute this stability to a coincidental matching of the periodicity and the corrugation amplitude between the Ag film and the substrate, which is realized by periodic insertion of stacking faults into a Ag fcc crystal.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.