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The Ehrlich-Schwoebel Effect for Vacancies: Low-Index Faces of Silver

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  17 March 2011

Michael I. Haftel
Michael I. Haftel*
Affiliation:
Nanostructures Optics Section, Naval Research Laboratory, Washington, DC 20735-5343
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Abstract

We employ surface-embedded-atom-method potentials to investigate the diffusion barriers of vacancies diffusing over and near steps on the low index faces of silver. Barriers for vacancy terrace diffusion, diffusion over step-edges, and diffusion along step edges, including around corners, are calculated. Vacancies are significantly less mobile than adatoms and have large Ehrlich-Schwoebel (ES) barriers on all three faces. For Ag(100) the diffusion barrier for vacancies along step-edges is virtually the same (474 meV) as on the terrace. As in diffusion near the step edge, vacancies encounter a significant increase (213 meV) in the activation barrier when diffusing around the corner of a vacancy island (the corner analogue of the ES barrier), but the excess barrier around a kink all but disappears because exchange diffusion is favorable there. The consequences of the vacancy diffusion barriers on 3D pitting and on island diffusion and coarsening are discussed.

Type
Research Article
Information
MRS Online Proceedings Library (OPL) , Volume 648: Symposium P – Growth, Evolution & Properties of Surfaces, Thin Films, and Self Organized Structure , 2000 , P5.4
Copyright
Copyright © Materials Research Society 2001

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