Effect of Cu impurities on wet etching of Si(110): formation of trapezoidal hillocks

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A1 Alkuperäisartikkeli tieteellisessä aikakauslehdessä

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en

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19

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New Journal of Physics, Volume 10, issue January 2008, pp. 1-19

Abstract

We simulate the formation of experimentally observed trapezoidal hillocks on etched Si(110) surfaces, describing their generic geometrical shape and analyzing the relative stability and/or reactivity of the key surface sites. In our model, the hillocks are stabilized by Cu impurities in the etchant adsorbing on the surface and acting as pinning agents. A model of random adsorptions will not result in hillock formation since a single impurity is easily removed from the surface. Instead a whole cluster of Cu atoms is needed as a mask to stabilize a hillock. Therefore we propose and analyze mechanisms that drive correlated adsorptions and lead to stable Cu clusters.

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Hynninen, T, Gosálvez, M A, Foster, A S, Tanaka, H, Sato, K, Uwaha, M & Nieminen, R M 2008, 'Effect of Cu impurities on wet etching of Si(110): formation of trapezoidal hillocks', New Journal of Physics, vol. 10, no. January 2008, 013033, pp. 1-19. https://doi.org/10.1088/1367-2630/10/1/013033