Nondiffusion atomic ordering in the low-temperature deposition of copper

A new mechanism of atomic ordering in the low-temperature homoepitaxial deposition of copper onto a close-packed (111) plane has been discovered by means of molecular-dynamics simulation. This nondiffusion mechanism is caused by the collective motion of clusters along the dislocation lines of partial Shockley dislocations. We predict the existence of dislocation-induced coalescence, which is an increase in the mean size of face-centered cubic (fcc) clusters owing to a decrease in the number of hexagonal close-packed (hcp) clusters due to the motion of surface dislocations.