Self-assembled growth of Au islands on a Mo(110) surface

Abstract

The self-assembled growth of epitaxial Au(111) islands on a Mo(110) buffer layer has beeninvestigated as a function of growth temperature and amount of deposited material by reflectionhigh energy electron diffraction and atomic force microscopy. At the growth temperature of385 °C the dendrite-shaped islands coexist with the compact ones. The uniform islands formed at500 °C adopt mostly a shape of truncated pyramids with a well developed (111)top plane and {111} and {100} side facets. As the growth temperature reaches800 °C the Au islands take less regular shapes due to occurrence of coalescence. The averaged areaand height of the islands increase with the deposition temperature and the amount ofdeposited material. The surface density of the islands decreases with increasingtemperature. The epitaxial relations at the interface between the Au islands and the Mobuffer determined from the angular dependence of the electron diffraction patternfavour the Nishiyama–Wassermann growth mode. Factors responsible for theisland-like growth and possible mechanisms of diffusion are discussed in details.