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Phys. Rev. B 52, 13801–13804 (1995)

[Issue 19 – 15 November 1995 ]

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Step barrier for interlayer diffusion in Fe/Fe(100) epitaxial growth

Jacques G. Amar and Fereydoon Family

Department of Physics, Emory University, Atlanta, Georgia 30322

The interlayer diffusoin barrier for Fe/Fe(100) deposition is estimated by comparing the results of kinetic Monte Carlo simulations with experimental results in the first few monolayers of growth. We find that, in contrast to previous theoretical estimates for other systems, the step barrier for Fe/Fe(100) is small in comparison with the activation energy for diffusion on a flat terrace (0.454 eV). Our results resolve a long-standing controversy and provide quantiative support for the conjecture that the existence of mounds in this system is due to a finite positive step barrier.

©1995 The American Physical Society

URL: http://link.aps.org/abstract/PRB/v52/p13801
DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevB.52.13801
PACS: 68.35.Fx, 68.55.Jk, 81.60.Bn

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