Spontaneous roughening: fundamental limits in Si(100) halogen etch processing

A dynamical scanning tunneling microscopy and density functional theory study of the thermodynamic stability of halogen-terminated Si(100) surfaces is presented. Significant steric repulsion is shown to exist on all halogen-terminated Si(100) surfaces. This repulsion is the driving force for a rough...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Physical review letters 2002-08, Vol.89 (9), p.096102-096102, Article 096102
Main Authors: Herrmann, Cari F, Chen, Dongxue, Boland, John J
Format: Article
Language:English
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Summary:A dynamical scanning tunneling microscopy and density functional theory study of the thermodynamic stability of halogen-terminated Si(100) surfaces is presented. Significant steric repulsion is shown to exist on all halogen-terminated Si(100) surfaces. This repulsion is the driving force for a roughening phenomenon, which is favored for all halogens except fluorine. Since roughening is an intrinsic property of these surfaces, it sets a lower bound on the atomic scale perfection that can be achieved using halogen etch processing.
ISSN:0031-9007
1079-7114
DOI:10.1103/PhysRevLett.89.096102