Orientation-dependent mobilities from analyses of two-dimensional TiN(111) island decay kinetics
نویسندگان
چکیده
We present a method for the determination of orientation-dependent mobilities Ceff(u) based upon analyses of the detachment-limited coarsening/decay kinetics of equilibrium-shaped two-dimensional islands. An exact analytical expression relating the orientation-dependence of Ceff(u) to that of the anisotropic step energies b(u) is derived. This provides relative values of Ceff(u) to within an orientation-independent scale factor that is proportional to the decay rate of the island area. Using in situ high temperature (T =1550–1700 K) low-energy electron microscopy measurements of two-dimensional TiN island coarsening/decay kinetics on TiN(111) terraces for which b(u) values are known [Phys. Rev. B 67 (2003) 35409], we demonstrate the applicability of our analytic formulation for the determination of absolute Ceff(u) values. D 2005 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
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