Characteristic adsorption of Xe on a Si(111)-(7×7) surface at low temperature

Site-dependent adsorption structures of Xe atoms on a Si(111)-7×7 surface were studied by scanning tunneling microscopy at 8 K. Xe atoms initially adsorb as dimers on the site between a rest atom and its two neighboring center adatoms, and then near the corner adatom site. Similar structures were formed at both the faulted half (FH) and the unfaulted half (UH) of the 7×7 unit. The observed structure is in excellent agreement with that estimated by the rigid ball model, however, site-dependent bias dependence and different stabilities were observed for them, indicating the existence of different interactions between Xe and Si atoms in the 7×7 unit despite the stable electronic structure of Xe. Based on the results with thermal desorption spectroscopy, the adsorption energies are estimated to be 200 and 220 meV for FH and UH units, respectively.