Abstract
Deposition of Mg on Si(111)7 × 7 produces an epitaxial magnesium silicide layer. Under identical annealing conditions, the thickness of this MgSi(111) layer increases with deposition amount, reaching a maximum of 4 monolayer (ML) and decreasing to ∼3 ML at higher Mg coverage. Excess Mg coalesces into atomically flat, crystalline Mg(0001) films. This surprising growth mode can be attributed to the accidental commensurability of the Mg(0001), Si(111), and MgSi(111) interlayer spacing and the concurrent minimization of in-plane Si mass transfer and domain-wall energies. The commensurability of the interlayer spacing defines a highly unique solid-phase epitaxial growth process capable of producing trilayer structures with atomically abrupt interfaces and atomically smooth surface morphologies.
2 More- Received 1 March 2013
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.88.045415
©2013 American Physical Society