Diffusion mechanisms taking place at the early stages of cobalt deposition on Au(111)

O A OVIEDO, E P M LEIVA AND M M MARISCAL

J. Phys.: Condens. Matter

IOP

Año: 2008 vol. 20 p. 265010 - 265010

span lang="en">In the present work a detailed atomic-level analysis of some of the main diffusion mechanisms which take place during cobalt ad-atom deposition are studied within atom dynamics and the nudged elastic band (NEB) method. Our computer simulations reveal a very fast exchange between Co atoms with Au ones when the deposit is a single cobalt ad-atom. However, when the nucleus size increases, a decrease the exchange probability is observed. Activation energies and waiting times for the different  transitions are obtained using molecular dynamics in combination with the NEB method.