Substrate rotation effects on β-FeSi2 epitaxial film growth using MBE

This study showed that substrate rotation plays an important role in the growth of high-quality β-FeSi2 epitaxial film on hydrogen terminated Si (1 1 1) substrate using molecular beam epitaxy (MBE). The present work elucidated the substrate rotation effects on morphology, thickness, and purity. Results verified that substrate rotation is essential to grow thicker epilayers with better morphology and compositional uniformity. In addition, purity analyses indicated that substrate rotation increases the concentration of non-metallic impurities (H, C, and O), but does not further introduce metallic impurities into β-FeSi2 films.