Diffusion processes and growth on stepped metal surfaces

TL;DR

This paper investigates how adatoms diffuse on vicinal fcc metal surfaces, emphasizing the importance of kinks and steps in surface growth, with findings aligning with recent experimental observations.

Contribution

It introduces a detailed analysis of diffusion mechanisms on stepped metal surfaces, highlighting the critical role of kinks in adatom mobility and surface growth processes.

Findings

Kinks are crucial for adatom movement along and across steps.

Results agree with experiments on Cu surfaces.

Exotic diffusion mechanisms may be significant for some metals.

Abstract

We study the dynamics of adatoms in a model of vicinal (11m) fcc metal surfaces. We examine the role of different diffusion mechanisms and their implications to surface growth. In particular, we study the effect of steps and kinks on adatom dynamics. We show that the existence of kinks is crucially important for adatom motion along and across steps. Our results are in agreement with recent experiments on Cu(100) and Cu(1,1,19) surfaces. The results also suggest that for some metals exotic diffusion mechanisms may be important for mass transport across the steps.