Heteroepitaxial growth of rotated InSb films on a Si(1 1 1) substrate via 2×2-In surface reconstruction

The heteroepitaxial growth of InSb films via In-induced surface reconstructions such as 2×2-In and √3×√3-In on a Si(1 1 1) substrate was carried out by using a two-step growth procedure in an ultra-high vacuum (UHV) chamber. The samples were characterized by high-energy electron diffraction (RHEED), X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) and Hall measurements. The RHEED and XRD (φ scan) patterns of the samples showed the existence of InSb crystals rotated by 30° with respect to Si substrate. From comparison between the growth of InSb films via 2×2-In and that via √3×√3-In, we found that the origin of the 30°-rotated InSb is due to the existence of the In-Sb bi-layer formed by 1 monolayer (ML) Sb deposition onto the In-induced surface reconstructions.