Heterogeneous energetic topographies generated by a diffusional mechanism

In the present paper, we study the main characteristic features of surface energetic topographies generated via the evolution of a single adsorbed par ticle whose mobility strongly affects the adsorption energy of each visited site. This tracer changes its coordinates by means of activated jumps to n earest-neighbor sites modifying the adsorption energy of each visited site according to a very simple law. Therefore, its evolution on the lattice ste p-by-step changes the energy surface which in turn allows to obtain an hete rogeneous trap substrate from an initially homogeneous lattice. In the fram ework of the well known surface growth theory, two different quantities (th e mean site energy and the energy roughness of the substrate) have been mon itored in order to characterize the process. The study of the time dependen ce of these quantities leads to the determination of the scaling behaviors represented by the scaling exponents. In particular, the obtained values fo r the scaling exponents suggest that the problem belongs to an unknown univ ersality class. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved..