Initial stages of Ni-driven nanostructures growth on Ag/Ge(111)-√3×√3 surface

Author

Tomaszewska, Agnieszka ; Huang, Xiao-Lan ; Lin, Chun-Liang ; Chang, Kuo-Wei ; Fu, Tsu-Yi

Author_Institution

Dept. of Phys., Nat. Taiwan Normal Univ., Taipei, Taiwan

fYear

2011

fDate

21-24 June 2011

Firstpage

1

Lastpage

2

Abstract

Using STM, we have investigated early stages of nanostructures formation upon room temperature (RT) deposition of 0.12 ML Ni onto Ag/Ge(111)-√3×√3 surface. While RT growth mode is determined by cluster formation, annealing up to 200°C promotes cluster nucleation. Further annealing results in creation of hexagonal-shaped islands which conserve on the surface in the unchanged form even after 800°C annealing. Unusual thermal stability of these islands is explained in terms of Ni-Ge compounds formation.

Keywords

annealing; germanium; island structure; nanostructured materials; nickel; nucleation; scanning tunnelling microscopy; silver; thermal stability; Ag-Ge; Ag/Ge(111); Ni; Ni-Ge compounds formation; Ni-driven nanostructures growth; RT growth mode; STM; annealing; cluster nucleation; hexagonal-shaped islands; room temperature deposition; temperature 293 K to 298 K; temperature 800 degC; thermal stability; Annealing; Compounds; Nickel; Substrates; Surface morphology; Surface treatment; Thermal stability; Ag; Ge(111); Ni; STM; island growth;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Nanoelectronics Conference (INEC), 2011 IEEE 4th International

Conference_Location

Tao-Yuan

ISSN

2159-3523

Print_ISBN

978-1-4577-0379-9

Electronic_ISBN

2159-3523

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/INEC.2011.5991662

Filename

5991662