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Science 12 July 1996:
Vol. 273. no. 5272, pp. 157 - 0
DOI:

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The fabrication of high-quality epitaxial films of metals on semiconductors, and vice versa, is difficult because the differences in surface diffusivity and in atomic bonding can lead to the patchy growth of thicker "islands" rather a uniform film. By using a two-step process of low-temperature deposition of a nanocluster film, followed by annealing, Smith et al. (p. 226) have grown epitaxial films of silver on gallium arsenide that are atomically flat over thousands of angstroms. The formation of the silver film requires a sharply defined critical thickness, and its surface is modulated by a long-range quasi-periodic arrangement with a "silver-mean" periodicity.




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