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An In Situ STM Investigation of Stranski - Krastanov Growth of Ag on Au (111) Electrodes

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 February 2011

S. G. Corcoran ,
G. S. Chakarova  and
K. Sieradzki
S. G. Corcoran
Affiliation:
The Johns Hopkins University, Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Baltimore, Maryland 21218
G. S. Chakarova
Affiliation:
The Johns Hopkins University, Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Baltimore, Maryland 21218
K. Sieradzki
Affiliation:
The Johns Hopkins University, Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Baltimore, Maryland 21218
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Abstract

We present in situ scanning tunneling Microscopy (STM) results which show the morphological aspects of Ag electrodeposition on Au (111). The experimental conditions enabled us to follow, in real time, with monolayer resolution, the morphological details of Stranski-Krastanov (SK) growth under a fixed electrochemical potential (constant supersaturation). Two epitaxial layers of Ag were sequentially formed prior to the heterogeneous nucleation of three-dimensional Ag crystallites. STM images are presented showing that the second silver monolayer has a coarsened (surface) diffusion-limited-aggregation growth front. IMMediately after the completion of the second silver monolayer which took approximately five Minutes, we observed the formation of 3D clusters preferentially at step edges. Our analysis of the SK growth process indicates that it is not well described by heterogeneous-nucleation thermodynamics owing to the almost identical lattice parameters of Ag and Au. Instead, we argue that the wetting-nonwetting transition we observed was kinetically stabilized by the relatively high activation energy involved with the motion of Ag adatoms over a descending Ag step.

Type
Research Article
Information
MRS Online Proceedings Library (OPL) , Volume 317: Symposium B – Mechanisms of Thin Film Evolution , 1993 , 103
Copyright
Copyright © Materials Research Society 1994

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