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Morphological Transition of Epitaxial Rhodium (111)

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Abstract

We report a global morphological transition in the nucleation and growth of epitaxial Rh (111). The transition occurs near 600 K, about 1/4 of the Rh melting temperature, and is signaled by a change in the shape of the surface features from fingered to compact. The transition appears to be related to a change in the critical nucleation size from 1 to 2 atoms. On both sides of the transition, there lies a regime of persistent layer-by-layer growth indicated by a minimum in surface roughness and by the presence of RHEED oscillations. The general surface features exhibit well defined length scales that are not self-affine, and as growth proceeds they increase in size following a power-law dependence on film thickness with a temperature-independent exponent of 0.33 ± 0.03. The results suggest a general pathway to the layer-by-layer growth of close-packed metals.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC, 27599-3255, USA

    Frank Tsui

  2. Department of Physics, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, 48109, USA

    Joanne Wellman, Ctirad Uher & Roy Clarke

Authors
  1. Frank Tsui
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  2. Joanne Wellman
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  3. Ctirad Uher
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  4. Roy Clarke
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Correspondence to Frank Tsui.

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Tsui, F., Wellman, J., Uher, C. et al. Morphological Transition of Epitaxial Rhodium (111). MRS Online Proceedings Library 399, 243 (1995). https://doi.org/10.1557/PROC-399-243

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1557/PROC-399-243

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