Transmission Electron Microscopy of Clean Surfaces and In-Situ Epitaxial Growth
16 March 1987
The transmission electron microscope is well suited to the study of surface phenomena, provided in-situ specimen cleaning and preparation conditions are provided. The combination of easily interpretable diffraction information and imaging is unique. Furthermore the penetrating power of ~200kV electrons allows the study of surfaces after they are buried by relatively thick overlayers. The latter is particularly important in understanding molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) and "deep" surface reconstructions. Clean Si surfaces and in-situ MBE growth of NiSi2 or CoSi2 on Si have been studied in a UHV High Resolution Transmission Electron Microscope with resolution 2.5A. Improved signal to noise in images obtained from clean, flat and thin specimens also promises application in the quantitative study of bulk phenomena.