Self‐assembled Si nanostripe grating at the molecular scale as a template for 1D growth

At room temperature, the early stages (submonolayer) of silicon (Si) deposition onto the anisotropic Ag(110) surface lead to the formation of flat-lying, individual Si nanostripes, with a high aspect ratio, all oriented along the Ag[−100] direction. Two kinds of nanostripes, varying in their width, are observed. When deposited at ∼200 °C, these one-dimensional (1D) nanostructures self-assemble laterally, to form a perfect 1D-array of essentially identical nanowires, 1.6 nm in width. They cover uniformly the entire Ag substrate up to macroscopic sizes. The self-assembled Si nanostripes have been characterized by high-resolution scanning tunneling microscopy (STM), and a model of their atomic arrangement is proposed. This Si grating has been subsequently used as a template for selective 1D growth of 1D Co nanolines. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.