Abstract
There exists a limiting thickness, d_c for epitaxial growth of Si film grown on a 7×7 superlattice surface of Si (111) held at temperatures below 300℃. In other words epitaxial film growth transforms into amorphous film growth when the film thickness approaches d_c. The value of d_c in-creases with increase in the substrate temperature (T_s) and decrease in the growth rate R. This is examined from the viewpoint that the growing surface becomes rougher with higher R and lower T_s because adequate structural rearrangement on the atomic scale is prevented. This view also leads to another thought that atomic step structure on the growing surface depends on the film growth condition. To research this, the atomic step structure change is examined by analyzing the full width at half maximum of the peak profile obtained by low-energy electron diffraction.
