Cooperative phenomena in self-assembled nucleation of 3 x 4-In/Si(100) surface magic clusters

Using statistical analysis of the scanning tunneling microscopy images of the 3 x 4-In surface magic cluster (SMC) arrays on Si(100)1 x 2 substrate at low In coverages, the main regularities of the space distribution of the nucleated SMCs have been established. It has been found that a nucleated SMC...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Surface science 2010-07, Vol.604 (13-14), p.1116-1120
Main Authors: Utas, O A, Denisov, N V, Kotlyar, V G, Zotov, A V, Saranin, A A, Chou, J P, Lai, MY, Wei, C M, Wang, Y L
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Arrays
Clusters
Energy use
Mathematical analysis
Nucleation
Sheet molding compounds
Simulation
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Summary:Using statistical analysis of the scanning tunneling microscopy images of the 3 x 4-In surface magic cluster (SMC) arrays on Si(100)1 x 2 substrate at low In coverages, the main regularities of the space distribution of the nucleated SMCs have been established. It has been found that a nucleated SMC perturbs the surface potential relief within a limited zone around itself in a way that some of the sites in the zone demonstrate a great preference for nucleating a new cluster, while in the other sites the nucleation is greatly suppressed. Outside the zone, the nucleation probability is close to that of the random nucleation simulated using Monte-Carlo technique. Energetic background of the observed phenomena has been proved using density-functional theory calculations, which clearly demonstrate that the lower the formation energy the higher the occurrence probability of a given cluster-pair configuration.
ISSN:0039-6028
DOI:10.1016/j.susc.2010.03.025