Adsorption and diffusion dynamics of a Ge adatom on the Si{100}(2×1) surface

Abstract

The Ge-adatom adsorption and diffusion on the fully relaxed Si{100}(2×1) surface is studied by a combination of molecular-dynamics simulations with Tersoff’s potential for the Ge-Si interactions, a simplified transition-state theory of Voter and lattice-gas simulations. Six local minima for adsorption are found on the surface, and the activation energies between each are determined. The macroscopic diffusion follows the Arrhenius behavior with D=4.3×${10}^{\mathrm{-}4}$ exp(-0.73 eV/kT) ${\mathrm{cm}}^2$/sec. In addition, we find that the adatom diffusion is anisotropic in nature and the direction of easy diffusion is perpendicular to the dimers (i.e., parallel to the dimer rows) of the original surface. A comparison with the Si-adatom diffusion shows that the Ge-adatom diffusion is less anisotropic and that Ge adatoms diffuse 2–3 times more slowly than Si adatoms on the same surface. The diffusion coefficients for Ge- and Si-adatom migrations perpendicular to the dimer rows are found to be ${\mathit{D}}_{\mathrm{\perp }}^{\mathrm{Ge}}$=2.8×${10}^{\mathrm{-}3}$ exp(-1.17 eV/kT) ${\mathrm{cm}}^2$/sec and ${\mathit{D}}_{\mathrm{\perp }}^{\mathrm{Si}}$=4.8×${10}^{\mathrm{-}3}$ exp(-1.20 eV/kT) ${\mathrm{cm}}^2$/sec, respectively.