An investigation was made of the adsorption, diffusion, and clustering of Ag atoms on a Si(111)-(7x7) surface by scanning tunnelling microscopy. The three kinds of structure, i.e., monomers, dimers and clusters, were observed at a coverage of 0.02 monolayer of Ag atoms. In particular, dimers in unfaulted half unit cells (UHUCs) were observed. It was found that monomers in UHUCs jump to the next HUCs with a lifetime of 5.6 x 103s. Height oscillations were also measured for the cross-sectional analysis of dimers in UHUCs and it was proposed that Ag dimers moved along three stable sites in HUCs in 0.5ms.

Diffusion and Clustering of Ag Atoms on Si(111)-7x7 Surface. J.Osiecki, H.Kato, A.Kasuya, S.Suto: Japanese Journal of Applied Physics, 2006, 45[3B], 2056-8