An investigation was made, of a transition between the step-flow and nucleation regimes of homo-epitaxy on a (111) surface, by means of  in situ  ultra-high vacuum reflection electron microscopy. The minimum inter-step distance for 2-dimensional nucleation was measured at temperatures between 500 and 850C, and for atomic deposition rates of between 0.01 and 0.7 monolayer/s. It was found that the dependence of the activation energy upon the atomic flux, as deduced from Arrhenius plots of the critical distance, was more complicated than was predicted by the simple Einstein relationship.

A.V.Latyshev, A.B.Krasilnikov, A.L.Aseev: Physical Review B, 1996, 54[4], 2586-9

Compensation Chart: Sb in Si

(vertical axis shifted by arbitrary factor)