Time evolution of adatom and vacancy clusters on Ag(110)

The time evolution of adatom and vacancy islands on an Ag(110) surface is studied by using a variable-temperature ultrahigh vacuum scanning tunneling microscope. The islands are created by Ar⁺ ion sputtering at low temperatures and at very low fluxes (0.004 ML s⁻¹). The area of both kinds of island decreases linearly as a function of time, at least for small islands. The experimental results are compared with kinetic Monte Carlo simulations.