Sb induced (7×7) to (1×1) surface phase transformation of the Si(111) surface

Adsorption of Sb at a very low flux rate results in an epitaxial layer-by-layer growth on Si(111) surface held at room-temperature. Band-bending is not observed for submonolayer Sb coverages while sharp changes in the photoemission features are observed for 1.0 monolayer (ML) Sb adsorption. Changes in the core level binding energy and width in X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, surface related feature in Electron energy loss spectroscopy and spot intensity ratios in Low energy electron diffraction studies suggest a surface phase transition upon adsorption of 1.0 monolayer of Sb. A plausible model is proposed to explain the abrupt metal–semiconductor transformation at this critical coverage of 1.0 ML.