We investigated the epitaxial growth of Fe islands on clean and ammonia-saturated Si(111)7 × 7 surfaces by reflection high-energy electron diffraction for 0–10 monolayer Fe coverage. From the profile analyses of transmission electron diffraction spots of Fe crystalline islands, we found that the islands grew at a lower speed, with a larger and a smaller height on the ammonia-saturated surfaces indicating a weak three-dimensional (3D) island feature than that on the clean surfaces indicating a strong 3D feature. The difference in the Fe growth was ascribed to the density of nucleation centers because half of the reactive bare Si adatoms were inactivated on the ammonia-saturated surfaces. From the analyses of the crystalline domain size and relative number of domains at the initial growth stage on both surfaces, we suggested Fe configuration models that initiate the nucleation centers.

中文翻译：

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原位电子衍射研究在纯净氨饱和Si（111）7×7表面上Fe岛的生长

我们通过反射高能电子衍射研究了0-10个单层Fe覆盖下在干净的和氨饱和的Si（111）7×7表面上Fe岛的外延生长。从铁晶体岛的透射电子衍射点的轮廓分析中，我们发现这些岛以较低的速度生长，在氨饱和表面上的高度越来越大，这表明弱于三维（3D）岛特征。在干净的表面上显示出强烈的3D功能。Fe生长的差异归因于成核中心的密度，因为一半的反应性裸Si硅原子在氨饱和的表面上失活了。通过分析两个表面初始生长阶段的晶域大小和相对域数，