The reduction of out-of-phase boundaries of 7 x 7 reconstructed domains on (111) surfaces during homo-epitaxial growth was analyzed. Two conditions were identified: one was that, along a step, 2 or more starting points of out-of-phase boundaries should exist on the upper terrace in a region which was bounded by 2 adjacent terminating points of out-of-phase boundaries in the lower terrace. The other condition was that step advance in the region had to be different from site to site, so that the out-of-phase boundaries in the upper terrace bent to coalesce with each other. The creation process of out-of-phase boundaries was first simulated, followed by the reduction process; using the above conditions. The reduction process was closely related to the initial nucleation sites of the 7 x 7 reconstruction, along a step edge, and to the propagation velocity of the 7 x 7 reconstructed region. A reported layer-coverage dependence upon the reduction of the average distance between out-of-phase boundaries was reproduced by the simulation.

Origin of Reducing Domain Boundaries of Si(111)-7 x 7 during Homoepitaxial Growth T.Kawamura, H.Hibino, T.Ogino: Japanese Journal of Applied Physics - 1, 1999, 38[3A], 1530-3