In situ growth studies of In and Ga on Si(001) using STM

In an STM experiment, the ability to look at the same area of the surface a t different stages of growth gives information on phenomena such as nucleat ion that would be difficult or impossible to obtain otherwise. In this pape r, we illustrate the usefulness of this capability by showing in situ growt h data for In and Ga on Si(001). We show that in this system, nucleation is not dominated by defects on the substrate, and that one-dimensional metal rows grow by preferential accommodation of metal atoms at the row ends.