The adsorption and growth of Xe layers on the Cu(111) surface were studied
with a low-temperature scanning tunneling microscope. Initially, Xe atoms p
referentially adsorb at the step, revealing two different wetting behaviors
at the upper and the lower step edges at the coverage of <0.1 monolayer. T
hree-dimensional island growth is followed on the terrace at the coverage o
f >0.2 monolayer when grown at <20 K. The island growth is attributed to in
homogeneous nucleation and lower diffusivity of Xe on the Xe monolayer than
on the Cu(111) surface. The diffusion barriers, the two-dimensional barrie
r on a terrace and the one-dimensional barrier along a step, and the step-d
own barrier determine the growth morphology of Xe layers as the substrate t
emperature was raised. [S0163-1829(99)00238-9].