In situ morphological investigation of the {105} faceted Ge islands on the Si(001) surface (hut clusters) have been carried out using an ultra high vacuum instrument integrating a high resolution scanning tunnelling microscope and a molecular beam epitaxy vessel. Both species of hut clusters--pyramids and wedges--were found to have the same structure of the {105} facets which was visualized. Structures of vertexes of the pyramidal clusters and ridges of the wedge-shaped clusters were revealed as well and found to be different. This allowed us to propose a crystallographic model of the {105} facets as well as models of the atomic structure of both species of the hut clusters. An inference is made that transitions between the cluster shapes are impossible.
@article{arxiv.0908.0883,
title = {Atomic structure of Ge quantum dots on the Si(001) surface},
author = {Larisa V Arapkina and Vladimir A Yuryev},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:0908.0883},
year = {2010}
}
Comments
6 pages, 6 figures. Accepted to JETP Letters (publication date 2010-03-25)