STUDY OF THE EARLY STAGES OF THE EPITAXY OF SILICON ON SILICON

Abstract

Observations of low‐energy electron diffractionpatterns reveal that the epitaxial temperature for Si films is approximately 400°C on clean Si {111} surfaces and tends to be lower, although less well defined, on clean Si{100} surfaces. A few monolayers deposited at room temperature on{111} are amorphous, on{100} they exhibit the bulk structure. The recrystallization process of an amorphoussurface layer occurs by way of an ``intermediate'' phase, characterized by periodic modulations of lattice spacing and scattering factor, and an ``ideal'' phase that corresponds to simple termination of the bulk lattice. The transition from the latter to the reconstructed surface structure occurs by way of antiphase domains.