Oscillatory interaction between O impurities and Al adatoms on Al(111) and its effect on nucleation and growth.

Journal Article · Tue Jul 01 04:00:00 EDT 2003 · Proposed for publication in Physical Review B.

OSTI ID:1002036

Hansen, Henri ^[1]; Linke, Udo ^[2]; Feibelman, Peter Julian; Polop, Celia ^[1]; Zhong, Z ^[1]; Michely, Thomas ^[1]; Busse, Carsten ^[1]; Langenkamp, Winfried ^[1]; Kotrla, M ^[3]

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1. Physikalisches Institut, Aachen, Germany
2. ISG Forschungszentrum Julich, Julich, Germany
3. Academy of Sciences, Prague, Czech Republic

We present a combined experimental and theoretical study of submonolayer growth in the presence of predeposited immobile impurities. Scanning tunneling microscopy measurements of Al/Al(1 1 1) epitaxy in the presence of oxygen adsorbates show that immobile O impurities influence all aspects of the early stages of homoepitaxial growth on Al(1 1 1). Possible scenarios for modified growth are investigated using kinetic Monte Carlo simulations. Dependences of island density on temperature, impurity concentration and strength and type of adatom-impurity interaction are compared. The comparison shows that the morphology of the growing Al film cannot result from only one interaction type: attractive or repulsive. An oscillatory interaction, suggested by ab initio calculations, is proposed to explain the behavior of the system.

• Research Organization: Sandia National Laboratories
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE
• DOE Contract Number: AC04-94AL85000
• OSTI ID: 1002036
• Report Number(s): SAND2003-2633J
• Journal Information: Proposed for publication in Physical Review B., Journal Name: Proposed for publication in Physical Review B. Journal Issue: 1-2 Vol. 575; ISSN SUSCAS; ISSN 0039-6028
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS
GENERAL PHYSICS
ALUMINIUM
DIFFUSION
EPITAXY
FUNCTIONALS
IMPURITIES
KINETICS
MORPHOLOGY
NUCLEATION
OXYGEN
SCANNING TUNNELING MICROSCOPY