Uchihashi Takashi, Ohbuchi Chigusa, Tsukamoto Shigeru, Nakayama Tomonobu
Nanomaterial Laboratory, National Institute for Materials Science, 1-1, Namiki, Tsukuba, Ibaraki, 305-0044, Japan.
Phys Rev Lett. 2006 Apr 7;96(13):136104. doi: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.96.136104.
The role of the In/Si(111)-(4 x 1)-In surface as an atomic-scale geometrical template for the growth of Ag thin films is clarified by scanning tunneling microscopy and low energy electron diffraction. Low-temperature grown Ag films are found to have stripe structures with a transverse periodicity equal to that of indium chains of the In/Si(111)-(4 x 1)-In. The stripes exhibit a structural transformation at the thickness of 6 monolayers (ML); this relaxation allows the stripes to persist up to a thickness as large as 30 ML (approximately = 7 nm) while maintaining their mean periodicity. We attribute this stability to a coincidental matching of the periodicity and the corrugation amplitude between the Ag film and the substrate, which is realized by periodic insertion of stacking faults into a Ag fcc crystal.
通过扫描隧道显微镜和低能电子衍射，阐明了In/Si(111)-(4×1)-In表面作为Ag薄膜生长的原子尺度几何模板的作用。发现低温生长的Ag薄膜具有条纹结构，其横向周期性与In/Si(111)-(4×1)-In铟链的周期性相等。条纹在6个单层（ML）厚度时表现出结构转变；这种弛豫使得条纹在厚度高达30 ML（约7 nm）时仍能持续存在，同时保持其平均周期性。我们将这种稳定性归因于Ag薄膜与衬底之间周期性和起伏幅度的巧合匹配，这是通过在Ag面心立方晶体中周期性插入堆垛层错来实现的。
