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Nucleation Behaviour in the Initial Stage of Surfactant-Mediated Epitaxial Growth |
| WANG Dai-Mu1;SUN Xia1;DING Ze-Jun1;WU Zi-Qin2 |
| 1Structure Research Laboratory and Department of Physics, University of Science and Technology of China,Hefei 230026
2Department of Astronomy and Applied Physics, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei 230026 |
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| Cite this article: |
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WANG Dai-Mu, SUN Xia, DING Ze-Jun et al 2004 Chin. Phys. Lett. 21 2029-2032 |
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Abstract The nucleation kinetics in the early stage of epitaxial growth mediated by a monolayer of surfactant is studied by using kinetic Monte Carlo simulations. Our simulation model includes three main kinetic parameters: a small barrier for adatom diffusion on the surfactant terrace, a higher barrier for the exchange of adatoms with their underneath surfactant atoms, and a highest barrier for the recovery exchange in which an exchanged adatom resurfaces to the top of the surfactant layer. The simulations reveal a distinct transition of nucleation behaviour as the different atomic processes are activated successively with increasing temperature. The total nucleus density as a function of temperature exhibits a complex N-shape with a minimum and a maximum, which define the transition temperatures. The characteristic behaviour of nucleation density is helpful to rationalize the experimental observations on the temperature dependence of growth mode in some surfactant-mediated epitaxial systems.
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| Keywords:
68.55.-a
68.35.Bs
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Published: 01 October 2004
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