Vacuum-cleaved (111) silicon surfaces were probed using low-energy electron diffraction, Auger electron spectroscopy and angle-resolved photo-electron spectroscopy. The experiments provided strong evidence for the validity of the Haneman model in describing the crystallography of the reconstructed cleaved face. The growth of silver overlayers ranging in thickness from a fraction (0.1) of a monolayer to several thousand Å was examined and the Stranski-Krastanov growth mechanism confirmed. On clean surfaces, silver showed (111) epitaxy with domains oriented parallel to the silicon substrate. The deposition of a single monolayer of silver atoms removed the silicon 2 x 1 reconstruction and the electronic nature of this silicon-silver monolayer interface was quite different from either that of the clean silicon or a thick silver film. The data show that the Schottky barrier formed between silicon and silver was already fully formed before the deposition of any silver, i.e. it had the same magnitude as the band bending at the clean surface. The implications of this result were discussed. In addition the adhesive nature of silver films on silicon was probed. Interfacial failure was believed to be 'cohesive' rather than 'adhesive' in nature and occurred in the strained region between an adsorbed silver monolayer and the remainder of the silver film.

An Investigation of Thin Silver Films on Cleaved Silicon Surfaces. A.McKinley, R.H.Williams, A.W.Parke: Journal of Physics C, 1979, 12[12], 2447-63