The Ehrlich-Schwoebel Effect for Vacancies: Low-Index Faces of Silver

Abstract

AbstractWe employ surface-embedded-atom-method potentials to investigate the diffusion barriers of vacancies diffusing over and near steps on the low index faces of silver. Barriers for vacancy terrace diffusion, diffusion over step-edges, and diffusion along step edges, including around corners, are calculated. Vacancies are significantly less mobile than adatoms and have large Ehrlich-Schwoebel (ES) barriers on all three faces. For Ag(100) the diffusion barrier for vacancies along step-edges is virtually the same (474 meV) as on the terrace. As in diffusion near the step edge, vacancies encounter a significant increase (213 meV) in the activation barrier when diffusing around the corner of a vacancy island (the corner analogue of the ES barrier), but the excess barrier around a kink all but disappears because exchange diffusion is favorable there. The consequences of the vacancy diffusion barriers on 3D pitting and on island diffusion and coarsening are discussed.