Controlled growth of Zn nano-dots on a Si (111) -7×7 surface saturated with C₂H₅OH

Metal atoms bonded with Si adatoms on the Si (111) - (7×7) surface undergo migration by hopping adjacent Si-rest atoms with dangling bond. By saturated adsorption of Si (111) - (7×7) surface with C2 H5 OH, the whole Si-rest atoms and a half of Si adatoms are occupied with Si-H and Si-O C2 H5, so that the Zn atoms adsorbed on this surface cannot migrate by hopping. When Zn atoms were deposited on this surface, ca. 5 nm Zn dots were grown in the hexagonal spacing of ca. 5.4 nm width around the corner holes, which work as a mold. This is quite different from the growth of honeycomb layers composed of Zn3 clusters on the clean Si (111) - (7×7) surface. The dots grow up to nine (1.97 nm) to 13 layers (2.64 nm) by keeping their size, which implies a layer-by-layer growth of dots in the mold, where the growth is controlled by the kinetics instead of energetic feasibility.