Eur. Phys. J. B 30, 111-115 (2002)
https://doi.org/10.1140/epjb/e2002-00364-9

Conductivity of ultrathin Pb films during growth on Si(111) at low temperatures

Institut für Festkörperphysik, Universität Hannover, Appelstrasse 2, 30167 Hannover, Germany

Corresponding author: ^a henzler@fkp.uni-hannover.de

Received: 13 February 2002
Revised: 8 August 2002
Published online: 19 November 2002

Abstract

The electronic properties of thin metallic films strongly depend on their structure. For the preparation of ultrathin films (0.8 to 12 ML) Pb was grown on a Si (111)- structure at temperatures below 25 K. Percolation as measured by DC conductance starts at 0.7 ML. Up to 4 ML the growing film is disordered. During continuation of the growth the film recrystallizes epitaxially and layer-by-layer growth connected with oscillations of conductivity and LEED intensities is observed even at 25 K. The defect structure as determined by SPA-LEED and the quantum size effect allow a quantitative description of the conductivity oscillations. The experiments show, that the electronic properties of ultrathin Pb films are clearly correlated with the structural properties of the film.