Double Step Fabrication of Ag Nanowires on Si Template

As Ag does not form my silicide on Si surfaces, Ag wire is a candidate for self-assembled nanowire on the reconstructed and single-domain Si(5 5 12)-2 $\times$ 1. In the present study, various Ag coverages and post-annealing temperatures had been tested to fabricate a Ag nanowire with high aspect ratio. When Ag coverage was less than 0.03 ML and the post-annealing temperature was 500(C, Ag atoms preferentially adsorbed on the tetramer sites resulting in Ag wires with an inter-row spacing of ~5 nm. However, its aspect ratio is relatively small and its height is also not even. On the other hand, the Ag-posited surface completely loses its reconstruction even with the same annealing at 500 $\^{C}$ if the initial coverage exceeds 0.05 ML. But the additional subsequent annealing at 700$\^{C}$ and slow-cooling process recovers the well-ordered Ag chain with relatively high aspect ratio on the same tetramer sites. It can be understood that, in the double step annealing process, the lower temperature annealing is required for cohesion of adsorbed Ag atoms and the higher temperature annealing is for providing Ag atoms to the tetramer sites.