RHEED intensity oscillation of C60 growth on GaAs substrates

Intensity oscillation of reflection high-energy electron diffraction (RHEED) is observed during C60 layer epitaxial growth on GaAs (1 1 1)B and (1 1 1)A substrates. The frequency of the oscillation coincides well with growth rate of C60 layers, suggesting that C60 layers grow with repeating nucleation and a step flow growth as with GaAs and other semiconductor materials. Unusual oscillation is observed in the initial C60 layer growth on GaAs (1 1 1)B substrates with (2 × 2) reconstruction. The initial layer growth is completed at approximately half monolayer coverage by C60 molecules. This phenomenon is explained by the model that C60 absorption sites are limited due to As-trimers absorbed on (1 1 1)B surfaces. This model is strongly supported by the fact that no such effect is observed on GaAs (1 1 1)A substrates where no As-trimer is absorbed.