Nucleation and Growth Mechanism of a Covalent Material: Magic Clusters and Chemical Reactions

With scanning tunneling microscopy, we study the very early stage of Si deposition on a Pb monolayer covered Si(111) surface. We find a special type of Si magic clusters which are highly mobile on the defect-free surface but may be trapped temporarily at certain boundary or defect sites. They may al...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inarXiv.org
Main Authors Yi-Hsien, Lee, Chatterjee, Kuntal, Chung-Kai, Fang, Shih-Hsin, Chang, I-Po, Hong, Chang, Tien-Chih, Hwang, Ing-Shouh
Format Paper
LanguageEnglish
Published Ithaca Cornell University Library, arXiv.org 16.01.2015
Subjects
Chemical reactions
Clusters
Free surfaces
Nucleation
Organic chemistry
Silicon
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Summary:With scanning tunneling microscopy, we study the very early stage of Si deposition on a Pb monolayer covered Si(111) surface. We find a special type of Si magic clusters which are highly mobile on the defect-free surface but may be trapped temporarily at certain boundary or defect sites. They may also aggregate and a special aggregate arrangement is found to be stable for one to two days at room temperature. Adding more Si on the cluster aggregate can transform it into a metastable structure. A scenario based on magic clusters and their chemical reactions is proposed to describe the nucleation and growth processes of covalent materials.
ISSN:2331-8422