Molecular-dynamics study of transient-diffusion mechanisms in low-temperature epitaxial growth

This paper investigates the transient-diffusion process in low-temperature epitaxial growth of thin-film Cu on the Cu(100) surface with molecular-dynamics simulations. By using a hybrid tight-binding-like potential, we have classified and made a quantitative comparison for the various transient-diffusion motions occurring during deposition. The statistics indicate that the impact cascade-diffusion mechanism plays a noticeable role in promoting atomic mobility. And the observed diffraction-intensity oscillations show that a quasi-layer-by-layer growth in the initial stage may take place for temperatures as low as 100 K.