Self-assembly via adsorbate-driven dislocation reactions.
Deposition of S onto a monolayer of Ag/Ru(0001) transforms the herringbone pattern of the clean Ag film into a strikingly regular array of 2D-vacancy islands [Nature (London) 397, 238 (1999)]]. Time-resolved scanning tunneling microscopy reveals that this nanometer-scale restructuring occurs by a cooperative mechanism involving the sequential formation of triangular regions with fcc and hcp stacking. Using a 2D Frenkel-Kontorova model, we can simulate the creation of these triangular building blocks via basic dislocation motions and reactions.
Thürmer
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K
Sandia National Laboratories, Livermore, California 94550, USA.
Carter
C B
CB
Bartelt
N C
NC
Hwang
R Q
RQ