Auger electron diffraction study of the initial stage of Ge heteroepitaxy on Si(001)

The initial stage of pure and surfactant (Sb)-assisted Ge growth on a Si(001) surface has been studied by Auger electron diffraction (AED) and X-ray photoelectron diffraction (XPD). A single-domain Si(001)2 × 1 substrate was used to avoid the ambiguity arising from the usual double-domain substrate. For the pure Ge growth, 1 monolayer of Ge was deposited onto the room temperature substrate followed by annealing at 350°C-600°C, which appeared to have (1 × 2) periodicity by LEED. Ge LMM AED patterns were measured to find that a substantial amount of Ge atoms diffuse to the bulk Si positions up to the fourth layer at least. For the Sb-assisted Ge growth, a Sb(1 × 2)/Si(001) surface was first prepared and Sb 3d XPD patterns were measured to find that Sb forms dimers on the substrate. 1 ML of Ge was deposited onto the Sb(1 × 2)/Si(001) surface and then the surface was annealed at 600°C. Ge LMM AED and Sb 3d XPD patterns measured for this surface showed that surfactant Sb atoms are indeed present on the first layer forming dimers and that Ge atoms are present mainly on the second layer with a substantial amount of Ge diffused into the third and fourth layers.