Massenspektrometrische untersuchungen der kondensation von dünnen schichten auf fremden unterlagen: II. Wachstums- und desorptionskinetik von Ag auf W

The growth and desorption kinetics of silver films on clean polycrystalline tungsten were investigated with a mass-spectrometric technique. The growth of the crystal phase started in the third monolayer by nucleation. This process occurred initially with increasing supersaturation until steady-state growth conditions were established. The evaporation coefficient β for the room-temperature films was unity. For the high-temperature films β was found to be lower than 1. The light and scanning micrographs showed that the silver films consist of isolated islands with strong epitaxial orientation to the substrate. The thermal desorption spectra confirmed qualitatively the island structure of the deposit. The kinetics data were explaned by the formation of diffusion zones around the growing cluster.