Title: Adatom interaction effects in surface diffusion
Author(s):

	Yu.B. Gaididei (Bogolyubov Institute for Theoretical Physics of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, 14b Metrologichna St., 03680 Kiev, Ukraine)
	V.M. Loktev (Bogolyubov Institute for Theoretical Physics of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, 14b Metrologichna St., 03680 Kiev, Ukraine)
	A.G. Naumovets (Institute of Physics of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, 46Nauki ave., 03680 Kiev, Ukraine)
	A.G. Zagorodny (Bogolyubov Institute for Theoretical Physics of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, 14b Metrologichna St., 03680 Kiev, Ukraine)

Motivated by recent research of Nikitin et al. [J. Phys. D: Appl. Phys., 2009, 49, 055301], we examine the effects of interatomic interactions on adatom surface diffusion. By using a mean-field approach in the random walk problem, we derive a nonlinear diffusion equation and analyze its solutions. The results of our analysis are in good agreement with direct numerical simulations of the corresponding discrete model. It is shown that by analyzing a time dependence of adatom concentration profiles one can estimate the type and strength of interatomic interactions.

Key words: adatom, surface, nonlinear diffusion, numerical simulations
PACS: 68.43.Jk, 68.35.Fx

Full text [pdf, ps]

<< List of papers