Manifestations of strain-relaxation in the structure of nano-sized Co-2 × 2 islands grown on Ag/Ge(111)-3~(1/2)×3~(1/2) surface

摘要

We have examined strain-relaxation of Co-2 × 2 islands grown on the Ag/Ge(111)-3~(1/2)×3~(1/2) surface by analyzing scanning tunneling microscopy images. We have found that the Co-2 x 2 islands commonly adopt a more compact arrangement as compared to that of the Ge(111) substrate, however they differ in a degree of an atomic compactness. We have not found a distinct relation between strain-relaxation and the island height Three groups of islands have been identified upon analyzing a correspondence between strain-relaxation and the island size: (I) small islands (not bigger than 80 nm~2) with a high atomic compactness, displaying fixed inter-row distances, (ii) small islands with unfixed distances between atomic rows, and (iii) big islands (bigger than 80 nm~2) with fixed inter-row distances, but with a less compact atomic arrangement compared to that of the first two groups. We propose a model to account for the relation between the relaxation and the island size.