Self-organized arrays of Cd nanocluster on Si (111)-7×7 surface

We studied the self-organization of Cd clusters on Si(111)-7×7 surface with an ultrahigh vacuum scanning tunneling microcopy (STM). Highly-ordered arrays of Cd nanoclusters have been fabricated by elevating the substrate temperature. The Cd clusters occupy equally the faulted and unfaulted half-unit cells of Si(111)-7×7 without obvious preference to either of them, forming Cd cluster pairs or hexamers. Furthermore, high-resolution STM images demonstrate that the charge transfer between Cd and Si atoms is responsible for cluster-cluster attractions, which in turn drive the self-organization of Cd nanoclusters into highly ordered arrays.