In Situ Reflection Electron Microscopy for the Analysis of Silicon Surface Processes: Sublimation, Electromigration, and Adsorption of Impurity Atoms

• Published in: Crystallography reports 2021-07, Vol.66 (4), p.570-580
• Main Authors: Rogilo, D. I., Sitnikov, S. V., Rodyakina, E. E., Petrov, A. S., Ponomarev, S. A., Sheglov, D. V., Fedina, L. I., Latyshev, A. V.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Activation energy; Adatoms; Crystallography and Scattering Methods; Electromigration; High temperature; Microscopy; Molecular beams; Physics; Physics and Astronomy; Reflection electron microscopy; Reviews; Silicon; Sublimation
• ISSN: 1063-7745; 1562-689X
• DOI: 10.1134/S1063774521040192

The results of recent studies of the structural morphological transformations of Si(111) and Si(100) surfaces using in situ ultrahigh-vacuum reflection electron microscopy (UHV REM) are presented. It is established that high-temperature sublimation from extremely wide Si(111) terraces occurs at a smaller activation energy (3.77 eV) than from the vicinal surface (4.04 eV). A nonmonotonic change in the kinetics of step bunching during a smooth transition from sublimation to growth on the Si(100) surface is recorded. The structural transformations caused by electromigration of positively charged Sn adatoms on the reconstructed Si(111) surface are demonstrated. It is shown that Si(111) surface etching under exposure to a Se molecular beam occurs in a layer-by-layer mode due to the desorption of SiSe 2 molecules with activation energy of 2.65 eV.