• Journal of the Korean Vacuum Society
• /
• v.15 no.2
• /
• pp.152-161
• /
• 2006

In order to test the capacity of Si(5 5 12) as a potential template for nanowire fabrication, Bi/Si(5 5 12) system has been studied by STM. With Bi deposition, Si(5 5 12) has been transformed to Si(3 3 7) terrace. Initially Bi atoms selectively replace Si-dimers and Si-adatoms with Bi-dimers and Bi-adatoms, respectively. With extended Bi adsorption, Bi-dimers adsorb on the pre-adsorbed Bi-dimers and Bi-atoms. These dimers in the second layer form Bi-dimer pairs having relatively stable $p^3$ bonding, Finally, the Bi-dimer adsorbs on the Bi-dimers in the second layer and saturates. It can be deduced that both surface transformation to (3 3 7) and site-selective Bi adsorption are possible due to substrate-strain relaxation through inserting Bi atoms into subsurface of Si substrate.