Diffusion and submonolayer island growth during hyperthermal deposition on Cu(100) and Cu(111)

TL;DR

This study models submonolayer island growth during hyperthermal deposition on Cu surfaces, showing that while generic growth features are robust, island diffusion details significantly affect morphology and scaling.

Contribution

Introduces a rate equation model incorporating realistic size and temperature-dependent island diffusion for Cu surfaces, highlighting effects on growth morphology and scaling.

Findings

Growth features are unaffected by diffusion details

Morphological transition depends on diffusion size dependence

Scaling exponent varies with temperature and surface geometry

Abstract

We consider the influence of realistic island diffusion rates to homoepitaxial growth on metallic surfaces using a recently developed rate equation model which describes growth in the submonolayer regime with hyperthermal deposition. To this end, we incorporate realistic size and temperature-dependent island diffusion coefficients for the case of homoepitaxial growth on Cu(100) and Cu(111) surfaces. We demonstrate that the generic features of growth remain unaffected by the details of island diffusion, thus validating the generic scenario of high density of small islands found experimentally and theoretically for large detachment rates. However, the details of the morphological transition and scaling of the mean island size are strongly influenced by the size dependence of island diffusion. This is reflected in the scaling exponent of the mean island size, which depends on both temperature and the surface geometry.