Effect of the diffusion anisotropy on the nucleation and growth of xenon on Cu(110)

The growth of Xe on the corrugated Cu(110) surface has been investigated us ing scanning tunneling microscopy. It is shown that the diffusion anisotrop y call lead to the stabilization of energetically unfavored structures and growth modes in two dimensions. In the present case the nucleation and grow th occurs at [001]-oriented steps at low surface temperature (13 K) whereas at high higher temperatures (40 K) an almost exclusive decoration of the [ 110] step edges takes place. These results are explained by interaction cal culations and Monte Carlo simulations, (C) 2000 Elsevier Science B,V. All r ights reserved.