Nanocluster epitaxy by annealing: Ag on H-terminated Si(111) surfaces

We report an experimental investigation on the morphology and orientation of Ag nanoclusters by RT deposition and subsequent annealing. We show that epitaxial Ag clusters of 2 similar to 6 nm in diameter can be synthesized in this way. The RT self-assembled Ag clusters grow as mostly single-crystal crystallites with Ag(l I I)//Si(I 11), but the in-plane orientation has a dispersion of similar to 9degrees centering at Si[I 10] direction. Upon annealing, the Ag clusters drastically rotated to the epitaxial configuration with the in-plane orientation aligned to the Ag[l 10]//Si[1 10] direction. The rotation and epitaxy of the Ag nanoclusters are explained based on a coincident site lattice model and interface energy minimization.