Reactions of silicon with surfaces of close-packed metals: Silicon on aluminum

Abstract

The reactions of silicon with the principal surfaces of aluminum, viz., Al {100}, Al {110}, and Al {111} in their clean state, are investigated by means of the low-energy electron diffraction (LEED) technique. On Al {100}, silicon is disordered; on Al {110}, it forms an 8×2 superstructure; on Al {111}, it forms a 3×3 superstructure. The experiments prove that, upon heating, silicon diffuses into the bulk aluminum lattice very rapidly at temperatures slightly higher than ambient. Structural models are proposed for the ordered structures which lead to the prediction of a √3-30°structure of Si on Ni {111} and Be {0001}. © 1971 The American Institute of Physics.