Scanning tunneling microscopy of semiconductor surfaces

This is a summary of the results during the first year of a research program aimed at studying the atomic structure of semiconductor surfaces using scanning tunneling microscopy (STM). This research has concerned epitaxial growth of metals on the (111) and the (100) surfaces of silicon, with particular emphasis on the Si(100) surface. We have studied In, Sn, and Sb on Si(100), and Au on Si(111), focusing on phenomena such as order and disorder in surface reconstructions, nucleation and growth, growth anisotropy, and rearrangement of the Si substrate step distribution.