Suppression of Island Formation During Initial Stages of Ge/Si(100) Growth by Ion-Assisted Molecular Beam Epitaxy

We have observed a suppression of island formation and an increase in the thickness limit for layer-by-layer growth of Ge on Si (100) by ion-assisted molecular beam epitaxy. Island suppression is observed both for ion energies at which surface defect generation dominates bulk defect generation and at which the majority of defects generated are bulk defects. This experiment, in conjunction with results of a linear elastic stability model for islanding, reveals that the kinetic mechanism for the suppression of island formation via ion bombardment is the reduction of surface amplitude fluctuations during the early stages of growth.