This study presents results showing that oxygen adsorption can significantly affect the morphological evolution of silver island films epitaxially grown on Si(100) and Si(111) substrates. The effects of oxygen adsorption are characterized by analyzing the morphologies formed during the thermal annealing of the island films under different annealing gas compositions. Silver island films are shown to evolve into an isotropic spherical shape in the presence of oxygen, suggesting that oxygen adsorption decreases the surface energy anisotropy of silver, which is supported by our density function theory calculation results. Oxygen is also observed to enhance the rate of dewetting and coarsening of the films, leading to a smaller areal coverage and smaller number density of silver particles. This is explained by the decrease in the activation barrier for the surface diffusion of silver adatoms and their clusters on silver and silicon surfaces with chemisorbed oxygen.

中文翻译：

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氧吸附对硅上外延银岛膜形态演变的影响

这项研究的结果表明，氧吸附可以显着影响在 Si(100) 和 Si(111) 衬底上外延生长的银岛膜的形态演变。通过分析不同退火气体成分下岛膜热退火过程中形成的形貌来表​​征氧吸附的影响。银岛薄膜在氧存在下演变成各向同性的球形，表明氧吸附降低了银的表面能各向异性，我们的密度函数理论计算结果支持这一点。还观察到氧气会提高薄膜的去湿和粗化速度，导致银颗粒的面积覆盖率和数量密度更小。