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From Self-Organization of Monoatomic Steps on the Silicon Surface to Subnanometer Metrology

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Optoelectronics, Instrumentation and Data Processing Aims and scope

Abstract

The article presents how the understanding of the fundamental processes of self-organization and morphological transformations of the atomically clean Si(111) surface as a result of the study using in situ ultrahigh vacuum reflection electron microscopy can be applied to metrology. The method of high-resolution transmission electron microscopy is used to show that the native oxide formed on the Si(111) surface in atmospheric conditions replicates the atomic step height with high accuracy. The techniques for creating vertical measures in the range 0.31–31 nm with an error of less than 0.05 nm in the entire measurement range are developed on this basis. It is shown that it is possible to create extremely wide atomically smooth surfaces (up to 230 \(\mu\)m) and use them as reference mirrors in interferometric microscopes. Crystal samples containing a certain number of monoatomic steps and atomically smooth surface areas are included in the State Secondary Reference Standard as a measure of angstrom height and angstrom flatness.

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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

This work was carried out using the equipment of the CKP Nanostruktury from the Rzhanov Institute of Semiconductor Physics SB RAS.

Funding

This work was supported by the Russian Science Foundation, project no. 14-22-00143.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Rzhanov Institute of Semiconductor Physics, Siberian Branch, Russian Academy of Sciences, Novosibirsk, Russia

    D. V. Sheglov, S. V. Sitnikov, L. I. Fedina, D. I. Rogilo, A. S. Kozhukhov & A. V. Latyshev

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  1. D. V. Sheglov
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  2. S. V. Sitnikov
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  3. L. I. Fedina
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Correspondence to D. V. Sheglov.

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Translated by O. Pismenov

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Sheglov, D.V., Sitnikov, S.V., Fedina, L.I. et al. From Self-Organization of Monoatomic Steps on the Silicon Surface to Subnanometer Metrology. Optoelectron.Instrument.Proc. 56, 533–544 (2020). https://doi.org/10.3103/S8756699020050118

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