Ordered arrays of self-assembled ErSi2-x, SmSi2-x, and DySi2-x nanowires aligned along Si [110] have been grown at 600°C on Si(001) vicinal substrates. The nanowires grow perpendicular to the Si dimer rows and are 1.5-5nm wide, approximately 2 monolayers high and up to 1μm long. These nanowires were characterized in situ with scanning tunneling microscopy. © 2002 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.

Template stripping of Au films in ultrahigh vacuum (UHV) produces atomically flat and pristine surfaces that serve as substrates for highly ordered self-assembled monolayer (SAM) formation. Atomic resolution scanning tunneling microscopy of template-stripped (TS) Au stripped in UHV confirms that the stripping process produces a flat, predominantly 111 textured, atomically clean surface. Octanethiol SAMs vapor deposited in situ onto UHV TS Au show a c(4 x 2) superlattice with (square root 3 x square root 3) R30 degrees basic molecular structure having an ordered domain size up to 100 nm wide. These UHV results validate the TS Au surface as a simple, clean and high-quality surface preparation method for SAMs deposited from both vapor phase and solution phase.