Observation of adsorption site of molecules and atoms provided by the pulsed laser deposition method on Si(111)-7×7 surface

Abstract We have observed the initial stage of the film deposition process by pulsed laser deposition method (PLD) on the Si(1 1 1)-7 × 7 surface to obtain the information of the interface between the substrate and the films. In the present work, we have concentrated to observe the initial stages for β-FeSi2 and SiC thin films fabricated by PLD method. We used an ultra-high-vacuum scanning tunneling microscope (UHV-STM) for the observation. Fe, Si, e-FeSi, HOPG and C60 targets were used for the PLD experiment. Our results suggest that particles ablated from Fe, Si and HOPG targets adsorbed onto the substrate surface as single atom, e-FeSi as a pair and C60 as a cluster of three molecules. We also found that the particles ablated from the Fe, Si, e-FeSi and HOPG targets which has a dangling bond preferred to adsorb onto adatom that has a dangling bond as well, whereas the particles ablated from the C60 target which is electrically neutral preferred to adsorb onto the mechanical structures of the surface. These results are expected to be useful information for fabrication of the β-FeSi2 and SiC thin films of good quality.