STABILITY OF 2-DIMENSIONAL CLUSTERS ON CRYSTAL-SURFACES - FROM OSTWALD RIPENING TO SINGLE-CLUSTER DECAY

An overview is given of recent work on the decay of two-dimensional cl usters on a Ag(111) surface. Experimental studies using scanning tunne lling microscopy are presented, and various approaches to extract quan titative information on the relevant atomic processes from cluster dec ay experiments are discussed. It is shown that for typical surface mor phologies, the decay rate of individual clusters depends critically on their local environment. Quantitative analysis therefore generally re quires complex and detailed case-by-case modelling involving numerical methods. This difficulty can be overcome experimentally by preparing well-defined model structures for which an analytical description can be used without any loss of accuracy. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science B.V. A ll rights reserved.