Low-temperature growth of thin Pb layers and the quantum size effect

Schmicker, D., Hibma, T., Edwards, K. A., Howes, P. B., MacDonald, John Emyr ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5504-1692, James, M. A., Breeman, M. and Barkema, G. T. 1997. Low-temperature growth of thin Pb layers and the quantum size effect. Journal of Physics: Condensed Matter 9 (5) , 969. 10.1088/0953-8984/9/5/004

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Abstract

It is argued that the growth morphology of ultrathin metal films should fluctuate as a function of film thickness due to the quantum size effect. To verify this, the specularly reflected intensity of x-rays, electrons and He atoms has been measured during the growth of a thin Pb layer on top of an substrate at 100 K. Curiously enough, the expected variation is observed in the He atom and electron scattering data, but not in the x-ray reflectivity. Our explanation is that the differences in the heat of formation for successive atomic layers have a strong effect on the step density, but not on the occupancy of the layers at the low growth temperatures necessary to obtain layer-by-layer growth. This is backed up by the results of a Monte Carlo simulation.

Item Type:	Article
Date Type:	Publication
Status:	Published
Schools:	Physics and Astronomy
Subjects:	Q Science > QC Physics
Uncontrolled Keywords:	surfaces; interfaces; thin films
Publisher:	IOP Publishing
ISSN:	0953-8984
Last Modified:	24 Oct 2022 10:48
URI:	https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/45956

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