Paper SS-TuP29
Slope Selection in Au Growth Fronts by Protrusion Interactions
Tuesday, November 1, 2011, 6:00 pm, Room East Exhibit Hall
| Session: |
Surface Science Poster Session |
| Presenter: |
José Luis Sacedón, Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas, Spain |
| Authors: |
J.L. Sacedón, Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas, Spain
A. González González, Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas, Spain
J.A. Aznárez, Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas, Spain
E. Rodríguez Cañas, Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas, Spain
E. Vasco, Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas, Spain
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| Correspondent: |
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Growth fronts of polycrystalline films composed by paraboloid-like surface protrusions (SPs) have been recently decomposed into elemental paraboloidal meridian zones, which allow a comprehensive statistical analysis of the film surface [1]. Using this analysis, local height distribution curves have been synthesized [2] and the interface width expressed as function of the statistical parameters [3]. The method evidences that the average value of the slopes obtained at the SP border remains constant during the growth [2]. The analysis of distribution curves of the terrace width (~ the inverse of the slope) at the SP borders provides three terrace-width limit values [4]: two of them in close agreement with the predicted ones within the frame of the standard slope selection theory, which is based on the balance between downhill/uphill surface currents for the A,B flanks of preferential (111) fcc growth (an intra-SP mechanism); and the third one has been interpreted as a result of an external interaction between SPs and the borders of crystalline plates on which the SPs grew. In the selected slope theory formalism, the surface current balance is the condition to keep constant a characteristic terrace width along a straight infinite flank formed by uniform terraces. In this work, we show that is possible to obtain limit terrace-width values close to those observed experimentally for limited and curved profiles by using, at the SP border terraces, an external interaction parameter and upward “Pav” coefficients predicted by the theory [5]. Finally, we will propose a general self-organization formalism, which applied as an inter-SP mechanism to the over-growing and under-growing protrusions, allows to predict limit values of terrace widths for the A and B flanks, in a reliable agreement with the experimental ones.
[1] E. Rodríguez-Cañas, J. A. Aznárez, A. I. Oliva, and J. L. Sacedón, Surf. Sci. 600, 3110 (2006)
[2] J. L. Sacedón, E. Rodríguez-Cañas, C. Munuera, A. I. Oliva, and J. A. Aznárez, Phys. Rev. B 72, 195413 (2005)
[3] E. Rodríguez-Cañas, E. Vasco, and J. L. Sacedón, Appl. Phys. Lett. 90, 013112 (2007)
[4] E. Rodríguez-Cañas, E. Vasco,J. A. Aznárez, A. Ruiz,C. Munuera,A. González-González, and J. L. Sacedon,Surf. Sci. 604, 974 (2010)
[5] J. Yu, and J. G. Amar, Phys. Rev. B 69, 045426 (2004)