Scanning tunneling microscopy of nanocrystalline silicon surfaces

Abstract

Scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) has been used to investigate silicon surfaces consisting of ≈ 100 A ̊ crystallites. The STM pictures show that individual crystallites can be clearly resolved and their dimensions agree with X-ray diffraction determinations of the crystallite size. Their observed shape is similar to TEM lattice images of individual crystallites. Our results illustrate the ability to correlate STM data on rough surfaces with established structural methods, and suggest that STM is well suited to investigate the structure of semiconductor surfaces with subnanometer vertical and lateral resolution. © 1986.