Study of the Electroless Silver Seed Formation on Silicon Surface

The silver seed on silicon was prepared through aqueous I-IF and AgNO3 solution at room temperature. In order to explore the formation process of silver seed on silicon, the methods of open circuit potential with time （OCP-t）, anodic stripping sweep voltammetry （ASV） and scanning tunneling microscope （STM） were used in this work. The procedure of silver nucleus growing into large particles was explained by electro-negativity. The growth mechanism of silver seed on silicon has been presented： at first, the silver monolayer and multilayer firstly grows onto silicon without fully covering the surface at the expense of silicon etching due to the silver seed attracting the electron from silicon, after that, the monolayer coalesces together, forming continuous grain film with some silver atoms diffusing into the silicon and the multilayer still grows thick simultaneously.