Strategies for the growth of large-scale self-organized structures

The parameters governing the growth of self-organized surfaces are not yet fully understood. This may explain why their use is still limited. This review discusses a prototypical self-organized surface, namely, the O/Cu(110)-(2 × 1) surface and identifies the parameters which control the self-organization process and how they can be tuned. It is shown how these parameters can be varied by controlled co-adsorption of species at the surface in order to tailor the self-organization process and extend the range of achievable nanostructures.