Surface electromigration of In on vicinal Si(001)

Surface mass transport of In film on vicinal Si(0 0 1) has been systematica lly investigated by a scanning Auger electron microscopy (SAM), low energy electron diffraction (LEED) and atomic force microscopy (AFM). It was obser ved that the temperature dependence of the mass transport shows the critica l phenomenon. Above a critical temperature T-c, surface electromigration of the In film toward the cathode side dominated the surface mass transport o n the vicinal Si(0 0 1) surface. The LEED and AFM observations revealed tha t the In film surface on the vicinal Si(0 0 I) consists of 3 x 4 terraces a nd (3 1 0) facets. The area ratio of the facet to the terrace exhibited abr upt an increase at T-c. It is believed that the change of the mass transpor t is related to the abrupt change of the area ratio of the facet to the ter race. Both the critical temperature T-c and the spread due to the surface e lectromigration of the In film depended on the configuration of the DC curr ent direction and the step edge. (C) 2001 Published by Elsevier Science B.V .