Electrical conductance at initial stage in epitaxial growth of Pb on modified Si(1 1 1) surface

The electrical conductance and RHEED intensities as a function of the coverage have been measured during Pb depositions at 105 K on Si(1 1 1)–(6 × 6)Au with up to 4.2 ML of annealed Pb. The experiments show the strong influence of used substrates on the behavior of the conductance during the epitaxy of Pb atoms, especially for very initial stage of growth. Oscillations of the conductance during the layer-by-layer growth are correlated with RHEED intensity oscillations. The analysis of the conductance behavior is made according to the theory described by Trivedi and Aschcroft [N. Trivedi, N. Aschcroft, Phys. Rev. B 38 (1988) 12298].