Impact-driven effects in thin-film growth: steering and transient mobility at the Ag(110) surface.
Low-energy atomic impacts on the Ag(110) surface are investigated by molecular dynamics simulations based on reliable many-body semiempirical potentials. Trajectory deflections (steering) caused by the atom-surface interaction are observed, together with impact-following, transient-mobility effects. Such processes are quantitatively analysed and their dependence on the initial kinetic energy and on the impinging direction is discussed. A clear influence of the surface anisotropy on both steering and transient mobility effects is revealed by our simulations for the simple isolated-atom case and in the submonolayer-growth regime. For the latter case, we illustrate how steering and transient mobility affect the film morphology at the nanoscale.
Ceriotti
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Dipartimento di Scienza dei Materiali della Università degli Studi di Milano-Bicocca, Via Cozzi 53, I-20125 Milano, Italy.
Ferrando
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Montalenti
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