Heterogeneous nucleation and adatom detachment at 1-D growth of Indium on Si(100)-2x1

TL;DR

This study combines STM observations and kinetic Monte Carlo simulations to analyze the growth, nucleation, and detachment processes of indium chains on Si(100), revealing the significant impact of adatom detachment on growth dynamics.

Contribution

It introduces a microscopic model incorporating anisotropic diffusion and forbidden zones, providing new insights into indium chain growth and the role of defects at room temperature.

Findings

Detachment of indium adatoms affects chain length distribution.

Growth characterized by nearly isotropic surface diffusion.

C-type defects significantly influence metal atom adsorption.

Abstract

Growth of atomic indium chains - 1D islands - on the Si(100)-2x1 surface was observed by scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) at room temperature and simulated by means of a kinetic Monte Carlo method. Density of indium islands and island size distribution were obtained for various deposition rates and coverage. STM observation of growth during deposition of indium provided information on growth kinetics and relaxation of grown layers. Important role of C-type defects at adsorption of metal atoms was observed. Measured growth characteristics were simulated using a microscopic model with anisotropic surface diffusion and forbidden zones along the metal chains. An analysis of experimental and simulation data shows that detachment of indium adatoms from the chains substantially influences a growth scenario and results in monotonously decreasing chain length distribution function at low coverage. Diffusion barriers determined from the simulations correspond to almost isotropic diffusion of indium adatoms on the surface. The results are discussed with respect to data reported in earlier papers for other metals.