Quantum stability of ultrathin metal overlayers on semiconductor substrates

摘要

Growth of metals on semiconductor substrates continues to be a major research area of the surface science and thin film growth community, for obvious reasons: metal/semiconductor interfaces are indispensable components for many device applications, ranging from metal-based transistors to interconnects. Despite many years of intensive studies, fundamental research in this area still constantly offers new excitement, with the elegant study of aluminum growth on Si(111) reported in this issue by Liu et al. as a particularly poignant example.