Energy barriers for interlayer diffusion in Pt/Pt(111) and Rh/Rh(111) homoepitaxy: Small islands

We performed detailed molecular statics calculations of energy barriers for various adatom movements in the vicinity of small island on (111) surfaces of Pt and Rh using Rosato-Guillope-Legrand interatomic potential. We found that for both systems the exchange processes are energetically favorable in comparison with direct jumps of an adatom. We observed that Ehrlich-Schwoebel barriers for exchange decrease significantly on small islands in comparison to single step on the surface. A comparison of both materials is presented. Presented at the VIII-th Symposium on Surface Physics, Třešt’ Castle, Czech Republic, June 28 – July 2, 1999. Financial support for this work was provided by the COST project P3.80.