Low-temperature epitaxial growth of thin metal films

Abstract

We present a different mechanism to explain the occurrence of long-lived oscillations in diffraction spot intensities during epitaxial growth of metal films on fcc (100) substrates at low temperature. Rather than rely on the common picture of cyclical nucleation and growth to produce the oscillations, the model invokes ``downward funneling'' deposition dynamics to fourfold-hollow adsorption sites.