Low-energy electron-microscopy investigations of orientational phase separation on vicinal Si(111) surfaces
- 18 November 1991
- journal article
- research article
- Published by American Physical Society (APS) in Physical Review Letters
- Vol. 67 (21), 2986-2989
- https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.67.2986
Abstract
We have used low-energy electron microscopy to investigate in real time the thermodynamically driven faceting of stepped Si(111) surfaces into (7×7) reconstructed (111) facets and ‘‘step bunches.’’ Our data are inconsistent with the thermodynamic expectation that an isolated linear facet should grow without limit: Instead we find that the width of the (7×7) reconstructed (111) facets quickly reaches a constant maximum size. We discuss the possibility that elastic relaxations caused by the facet edges are responsible for the finite facet width.This publication has 10 references indexed in Scilit:
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