GROWTH-KINETICS OF ANTIMONY LAYERS PREPARED ON SIOX BY MOLECULAR-BEAMDEPOSITION

Electron microscopy is used to study the growth kinetics of antimony l ayers molecular-beam-deposited on SiOx at a temperature T-s from 123 t o 198 K, with a constant incident rate of Sb-4 molecules of 8 x 10(12) cm(-2) s(-1) under a pressure of less than 6 x 10(-7) Pa. The depende nce of the island density, the fractional surface coverage and the siz e distribution on the deposition time is analyzed as a function of T-s in terms of Zinsmeister's theory. The following observations are made : (1) desorption is the dominant process of antimony admolecules at T- s studied; (2) the collision factor of a mobile admolecule with a stat ionary aggregate of admolecules depends on the size of the aggregate; (3) the adsorption energy E(a) of an admolecule to the substrate and i ts diffusion energy E(d) on the substrate are consistently determined from three different measurements of the island density, the fractiona l surface coverage and the size distribution, to confirm Zinsmeister's theory.