Study of RHEED intensity oscillations during the heteroepitaxial growth of CaF 2 on Si(111)

The results of investigations of the nucleation mechanisms and growth of the CaF 2 /Si(111) heterostructures by reflection high-energy electron diffraction (RHEED) are presented. It is shown that preliminary growth of the 2D silicon buffer layer provides two-dimensional layer-by-layer growth of subsequent layers of CaF 2 . The possible reasons of the 2D layer-by-layer growth failure at high substrate temperatures are proposed.