Structural study of 2D dysprosium germanide and silicide by means of quantitative LEED I–V analysis

Quantitative low energy electron diffraction (LEED) studies have been carried out to determine the structure of the rare-earth germanide Ge(1 1 1)1×1–Dy and the rare-earth silicide Si(1 1 1)1×1–Dy. The analyses reveal structures similar to that of other rare-earth silicides previously studied in which the dysprosium is located sub-surface below a reverse-buckled silicon/germanium bilayer. The LEED study has clearly demonstrated that the dysprosium atom is located above a substrate T4 site and refines earlier MEIS results.