Effect of the silicon surface step on the acetylene reaction with the Si(1 1 1)7 × 7 reconstructed surface

In this paper we report on a morphological investigation of the growth mechanism of silicon carbide (SiC) on the Si(1 1 1)7 × 7 surface. The role of the substrate morphology and temperature during acetylene exposure has been studied with the aim to obtain high quality SiC films. We compared two starting points of silicon substrate: one characterised by step bunching and one by monoatomic terraces of the same width. Our results indicate that a lower density of defects and holes is present in the former case.