Indium and gallium on Si(001): A closer look at the parallel dimer structure

Abstract

Indium and gallium have been shown to self-assemble on the surface of Si(001) into long single atom wide chains in a structure known as the parallel dimer structure. Previous theoretical studies of the similar Al/Si(001) system have calculated the energy of the structure, simulated scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) images, and proposed a nucleation mechanism for row growth. These proposals are compared with STM data for In and Ga.