Formation of Fe nanowires on Cu(1 0 0) vicinal surfaces

Abstract

The current paper describe the formation of Fe nanowires on Cu(1 0 0) vicinal surfaces via Kinetic Monte-Carlo (KMC) simulations based on the solid-on-solid model to determine optimum growth parameters, such as substrate temperature T, deposition rate F and coverage rate θ. The heteroepitaxial growth of mono-atomic wires on a Cu surface is performed over a large range of temperature, varying between 50 K and 550 K. We found that ‘perfect’ mono-atomic wires are formed at the step-edge of Cu vicinal surface in the temperature range [400–510 K]. The existence of an optimal temperature and deposition flux for the formation of the ordered Fe nanowires on stepped Cu(1 0 0) surface is found. We also discussed how the magnitude of the Ehrlich-Schwoebel barrier (ES) and inverse Ehrlich-Schwoebel barrier (ESi) affects the filling rate and the uniformity of Fe nanowires. Keywords: Kinetic Monte-Carlo simulations, Growth, Vicinal surface, Fe nanowires, Cu vicinal surface