Influence of deposition rate and time on nucleation of Er on a-C

Hadi Savaloni*, Said Ali Shahrestani, Michael A. Player

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

4 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Nucleation kinetics of UHV deposited erbium on amorphous carbon at room temperature and for atom arrival rates of 1.5 × 1013-1.8 × 1014 atoms/cm2 s is studied. For all deposition rates, the density of nuclei increased with time to a saturation value and remained stationary. It was found that the nucleation rate is linearly dependent on the deposition rate, indicating that a single-adatom constitutes a stable nucleus. At lower deposition rates (up to R= 1 × 1014 atom/cm2 s), the saturation density is constant and independent of R but at higher rates it increases with R according to the mathematical function ns = a + bexp(R/c). It is shown that the nucleation theory usually used to explain the experimental work needs some revision. For measured condensation coefficients, the diffusion length of adatoms xs = (1.53±0.01) nm, and the difference between adsorption and surface diffusion energies, Ea - Esd = (0.12±0.01) eV are estimated.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)172-178
Number of pages7
JournalNanotechnology
Volume8
Issue number4
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 1 Dec 1997

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