Reconstruction-Determined Diffusion of Ag Adatoms on the Si(111)-(7X7) Surface

Abstract

Surface diffusion is one of the basic processes determining morphology of a growing film. In the case of metal heteroepitaxy on Si(111)-(7X7) the diffusion is strongly affected by the presence of surface reconstruction, which introduces additional constraints into the motion of deposited atoms. To determine diffusion parameters we used two different approaches: i) interpretation of experimentally observed morphologies by a coarse-grained kinetic Monte Carlo model, ii) direct observation of adatom movement using UHV STM. The attempt frequency and the barrier to hopping of a single Ag atom between half-unit cells of the reconstruction were estimated in both cases. Obtained values are compared and discussed.