Electrical conductance at initial stage in epitaxial growth of Pb, Ag, Au and In on modified Si(111) surface

The electronic properties of thin metallic films of Pb, Ag, Au and In atoms deposited at 105 K on well defined metallic surface, i.e. Si(111)-(6 x 6)Au surface with 10 ML of annealed Pb, were investigated using four-point probe method in UHV condition. The structure of the substrate and deposited metals were monitored by the RHEED system. The electrical conductance, measured during the deposition of In and Pb atoms, shows the local minimum for the coverage equals about 0.3 ML whereas for An and Ag atoms the conductance decreases during the first monolayer growth. For An atoms the local maximum in the conductance was observed for the coverage about 0.55 ML, which can be connected with localized states. To describe theoretically the conductance behavior the tight-binding Hamiltonian and equation of motion for the Green's function were used and good qualitative agreement was obtained. (C) 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.