El Gabaly F, Bartelt N C, Schmid A K
Sandia National Laboratories, Livermore, CA 94550, USA. Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA.
J Phys Condens Matter. 2009 Aug 5;21(31):314019. doi: 10.1088/0953-8984/21/31/314019. Epub 2009 Jul 7.
We report a simple and general procedure to create arrays of atomically flat terraces on single crystal surfaces. Facets of three-dimensional (3D) metal islands formed after hetero-epitaxial growth are often flat and, through annealing or growth at elevated temperature, the formation of rather large (micron-scale) atomically flat-top facets can be promoted. We find that the step-free nature of top facets on such islands can be transferred to the substrate surface through room-temperature ion-sputter etching, followed by an annealing step. We use low-energy electron microscopy (LEEM) and Auger electron spectroscopy (AES) for in situ monitoring of the process steps while fabricating arrays of step-free surface regions on W(110), Ru(0001), Cu(100), and Fe(100) single crystals.
我们报道了一种在单晶表面创建原子级平整平台阵列的简单通用方法。异质外延生长后形成的三维（3D）金属岛的晶面通常是平整的，并且通过退火或在高温下生长，可以促进形成相当大的（微米级）原子级平顶晶面。我们发现，此类岛上顶面的无台阶特性可以通过室温离子溅射蚀刻，随后进行退火步骤转移到衬底表面。在W(110)、Ru(0001)、Cu(100)和Fe(100)单晶上制备无台阶表面区域阵列时，我们使用低能电子显微镜（LEEM）和俄歇电子能谱（AES）对工艺步骤进行原位监测。
