Article ID | Journal | Published Year | Pages | File Type |
---|---|---|---|---|
5423160 | Surface Science | 2010 | 5 Pages |
Abstract
Using statistical analysis of the scanning tunneling microscopy images of the 3Â ÃÂ 4-In surface magic cluster (SMC) arrays on Si(100)1Â ÃÂ 2 substrate at low In coverages, the main regularities of the space distribution of the nucleated SMCs have been established. It has been found that a nucleated SMC perturbs the surface potential relief within a limited zone around itself in a way that some of the sites in the zone demonstrate a great preference for nucleating a new cluster, while in the other sites the nucleation is greatly suppressed. Outside the zone, the nucleation probability is close to that of the random nucleation simulated using Monte-Carlo technique. Energetic background of the observed phenomena has been proved using density-functional theory calculations, which clearly demonstrate that the lower the formation energy the higher the occurrence probability of a given cluster-pair configuration.
Keywords
Related Topics
Physical Sciences and Engineering
Chemistry
Physical and Theoretical Chemistry
Authors
O.A. Utas, N.V. Denisov, V.G. Kotlyar, A.V. Zotov, A.A. Saranin, J.P. Chou, M.Y. Lai, C.M. Wei, Y.L. Wang,