Indium-induced layer-by-layer growth and suppression of twin formation in the homoepitaxial growth of Cu(111)

Abstract

We have investigated the effect of In on the homoepitaxial growth of Cu(111) by means of surface x-ray diffraction. At the temperature range investigated (125--300 K), the growth on clean Cu occurs in a three-dimensional mode with the creation of twin crystallites over a small fraction of the total surface area. When the surface is precovered with a submonolayer amount of In, layer-by-layer growth is induced and the formation of twin crystallites is suppressed.