LEEM Observations of Surface Reactions on Silicon

ChEMS Seminar

Featuring Peter Bennett, Ph.D.
Associate Director, Graduate Studies
Professor, School of Materials and Department of Physics
Arizona State University

Location:  Engineering Lecture Hall 110

Abstract:
Low Energy Electron Microscopy (LEEM) is a powerful tool for the study of reactions on surfaces, since it can provide video-rate images with 10nm resolution at high temperature. Bennett will discuss several examples of metal-silicon reactions, including step-flow during island formation, nanowire growth and solution and thermo-migration of liquid alloy droplets. Quantitative analysis of these kinetic processes allows extraction of fundamental parameters such as adatom diffusion and island formation energies.

Image sequence showing a “roadway” built up by multiple passes of PtSi liquid droplets at T = 1100°C (5x10µm each panel). Droplets of interest are numbered. Elapsed times are 0, 5, 10 and 30 seconds for panels a-d, respectively.