Structural and morphological instabilities of the Si(1 1 1)-7 × 7 surface during silicon growth and etching by oxygen and selenium

Abstract Using in situ reflection electron microscopy and ex situ atomic force microscopy, we have studied the morphological stability of large-scale (~10–100 μm) Si(1 1 1)-7 × 7 terraces during silicon growth and etching by oxygen and selenium. On the large-scale terraces, silicon growth at substrate temperatures T = 600–770 °C and Si deposition rates R = 0.002–0.2 BL/s proceeds in multilayer mode. Based on RMS surface roughness scaling W ∝ Θβ, we have discerned three modes of morphological instability caused by (I) effective adatom diffusion along step edges at low T and R (β ≈ 0.33), (II) effective diffusion and fast step motion along disordered “1 × 1” regions in 7 × 7 domain boundaries at intermediate T and R (β ≈ 0.2), and (III) accumulation of Si adatoms in high-atom-density “1 × 1” regions on the uppermost terraces at high T and R (β ≈ 0.5). The etching of the singular Si(1 1 1)-7 × 7 surface by oxygen leads to the slow development of multilayer morphology, while selenium-induced etching preserves flat surface morphology with periodic 2D vacancy island nucleation, growth, and coalesce, which is attributed to Se adatom diffusion. On the step-bunched surface, the Si or Se adatom diffusion to the step bunches leads to the self-organization of pyramidlike or valley-like morphology during Si growth or Se-induced etching, respectively.