MODELING OF CO-DEPOSITION OF INDIUM AND TIN ON SILICON(100): A KINETIC MONTE CARLO STUDY

A growth model for co-deposition of Sn and In on Si(100) at room-temperature was simulated using Kinetic Monte Carlo methods to shed light on the chemical selectivity and lack of dimer ordering seen in [Jure et al., Appl. Surf. Sci, 162, 638 (2000)], a Scanning Tunneling Microscopy (STM) study. In this work, the experimental observation that the number of mixed In Sn chillers is unaffected even when the relative flux rates are adjusted to favor In over Sn (by 100:1) - a manifestation of some sort of chemical selectivity - was investigated. Our simulations reveal that this phenomenon is ultimately related to the fact that the number of Sn-terminated chains is largely unaffected by the relative flux rate. Finally, we found that the attraction between metal dimers (whether of the same or different species) within a Si dimer row has only negligible effect on the apparent lack of dimer ordering seen in the STM study. Instead, dimer ordering is controlled by the detachment barriers in dimer-terminated islands.