Growth of Sn on Mo(110) studied by AES and STM

► STM measurements indicates that layer-by-layer growth for the first two layers of Sn. ► For submonolayer coverage tin prefer to nucleates randomly and creates one atom high islands on Mo terraces. ► In the completed first layer, no ordered regions were observed. ► As the sample is post-annealed to 800 K, the rearrangement of an existing film did occur and a Sn-Mo surface alloy is formed. ► As the sample is post-annealed, the average diameter of the observed tin islands is about 10 ± 3 nm.