Effect of Au thickness on AuAg bimetallic growth on reconstructed Si(5 5 12) surfaces

Large, stable and single domain unit cell with row-like structures makes reconstructed Si(5 5 12) surface an important one-dimensional growth template of nanostructures. We report on the morphological aspects of the growth of AuAg bimetallic nanostructures on a reconstructed Si(5 5 12) surface that has been deposited with a 0.5 monolayer (ML) Ag and various Au thicknesses (0.5 to 5.0 ML) to determine the optimum gold thickness for a growth of high aspect ratio of AuAg nanostructures. The mean aspect ratio of AuAg nanostructures increases up to Au thickness of 3.0 ML and for larger thickness the mean aspect ratio decreases. The prior growth of 0.5 ML Ag on reconstructed surface result in the formation of one-dimensional Ag strips which are helping for preferential nucleation sites along Si〈1 1 ¯ 0 〉 to form AuAg bimetallic long aspect ratio structures. Followed by these early processes of growth, for Au thickness >3.0 ML, excess Au ad-atoms begin to accumulate along Si〈66 5 ¯ 〉 and consequences reduction of mean aspect ratio of bimetallic nanostructures. Nanostructures are grown using molecular beam epitaxy method under ultra-high vacuum conditions and in situ scanning tunneling microscopy has been used to investigate the morphological variations. Determination of structural aspects and compositional analysis has been carried out using Rutherford backscattering spectrometry and high-resolution (scanning) transmission electron microscopy methods.