Study of the growth of Au films on Si(100) and Si films on Ge(100) surface

The growth of Au films grown on a Si(100)-2x1 surface and Si films on a Ge(100)-2x1 substrate is studied using Positron-annihilation induced Auger Electron Spectroscopy(PAES), Electron induced Auger Electron Spectroscopy(EAES), and Low Energy Electron Diffraction(LEED). Previous work has shown that PAES is almost exclusively sensitive to the top-most atomic layer due to the trapping of positrons in an image potential well just outside the surface before annihilation. This surface specificity is exploited to profile the surface atomic concentrations during the growth of Au on Si(100) and Si on Ge(100) and EAES provides concentrations averaged over the top 3-10 atomic layers simultaneously. The difference in the probe-depth makes us possible to use PAES and EAES in a complementary fashion to estimate the surface and near surface concentration profiles. The results show that (i) the intermixing of Au and Si atoms occurs during the room temperature deposition, (ii) the segregated Ge layer is observed onto the Si layers deposited at 300k. In addition, the prior adsorption of hydrogen prevents the segregation of Ge on top of the deposited Si and that the hydrogen adsorption is useful in growing a thermally stable structure.