The diffusion, nucleation and growth of Si on Si(001) which had been pre-dosed with various amounts of H was studied by means of scanning tunnelling microscopy and Monte Carlo simulation. It was found that, at temperatures of between 300 and 500K, the Si island density increased significantly; even at very small H concentrations. The effective activation energy for Si diffusion was doubled when 4% of the surface was covered with H. At temperatures above 550K, the effect of H upon Si islanding disappeared. This suggested that H was mobile below this temperature.

J.E.Vasek, Z.Zhang, C.T.Salling, M.G.Lagally: Physical Review B, 1995, 51[23], 17207-10