Effect of surface reconstruction on the growth of self-assembled Ag nanostructures on Si(111) surfaces

Thin Ag films of different thicknesses are grown on Si(111)-(7x7) surfaces at room temperature and then annealed at 700 degrees C for 5 minutes. Ag films morphology evolution upon annealing has been investigated by scanning tunneling microscopy and interface structures are characterized by reflection high energy electron diffraction studies. Here we report the effect of interface structures on the growth of Ag films. Ag islands formed on Si(111)-(7x7) surfaces at room temperature with strongly preferred heights of even atomic layers keeping (7x7) reconstructed structure at the buried interface unaltered. However, upon annealing interface structures changes to (1x1) and Ag layer with single atomic layer heights following the Si steps are observed.