Transition metal nanolines grown on a functionalized silver substrate

The self-organized growth of 3d transition metal nanolines on the Ag(110) surface functionalized with Si nanoribbon arrays is investigated by means of scanning tunneling microscopy. Deposition of Fe, Co, and Ni on the nanoscale template at room temperature leads to the formation of high densities of identical and regularly spaced nanolines with the same crystallographic orientation. The length of these nanolines is governed by the diffusion process of the transition metal atoms into Si nanoribbons and varies with the chemical nature of the deposited metal. We show that the transition metal nanolines adopt the same dimer structure, and the atomic dimensions are accurately extracted from high-resolution scanning tunneling microscopy images. At coverages higher than a monolayer, the transition metal growth reproduces the one-dimensional pattern of the Si template. Our study highlights the potential of Si nanoribbon templates to guide the 3d transition metal growth to form high densities of well-defined one-dimensional nanostructures.