0000000000746450
AUTHOR
I. Vattulainen
Adatom dynamics and diffusion in a model of O/W(110)
We consider adatom dynamics and diffusion in a lattice-gas model of the O/W(110) system under conditions where the adatom interaction effects are important. In particular, we study the behavior of the tracer and collective diffusion coefficients as a function of temperature when crossing over from the high-temperature disordered phase to a low-temperature symmetry broken phase. To this end, we utilize a combined analytical and numerical approach based on the recently developed dynamical mean field theory (DMF) in addition to conventional Monte Carlo simulations. In the case studied here, the origin of the strong temperature dependence of the effective activation barrier ${E}_{A}^{D}$ close …
Dynamical mean field theory: an efficient method to study surface diffusion coefficients
Abstract We test the accuracy of the dynamical mean field theory (DMF) developed recently for the collective and tracer diffusion coefficients D C and D T , respectively, by Monte Carlo simulations of two very strongly interacting model systems. The deviation of the DMF results from the true hydrodynamic diffusion coefficients is a measure of memory effects, which are not fully accounted for in DMF. In the cases studied here, DMF predicts the behavior of both D C and D T accurately, while the memory effects are found to be most pronounced at low temperatures, and at high coverages and stronger interactions. Nevertheless, the computational cost of DMF is just a fraction of what is needed for…
Non-Arrhenius Behavior of Surface Diffusion Near a Phase Transition Boundary
We study the non-Arrhenius behavior of surface diffusion near the second-order phase transition boundary of an adsorbate layer. In contrast to expectations based on macroscopic thermodynamic effects, we show that this behavior can be related to the average microscopic jump rate which in turn is determined by the waiting-time distribution W(t) of single-particle jumps at short times. At long times, W(t) yields a barrier that corresponds to the rate-limiting step in diffusion. The microscopic information in W(t) should be accessible by STM measurements.
Non-equilibrium surface diffusion in the O/W(110) system
In this Letter, we present results of an extensive Monte Carlo study of the O/W(110) system under non-equilibrium conditions. We study the mean square displacements and long wavelength density fluctuations of adatoms. From these quantities, we define effective and time-dependent values for the collective and tracer diffusion mobilities. These mobilities reduce to the usual diffusion constants when equilibrium is reached. We discuss our results in view of existing experimental measurements of effective diffusion barriers, and the difficulties associated with interpreting non-equilibrium data.
Memory expansion for diffusion coefficients
We present a memory expansion for macroscopic transport coefficients such as the collective and tracer diffusion coefficients ${D}_{C}$ and ${D}_{T},$ respectively. The successive terms in this expansion for ${D}_{C}$ describe rapidly decaying memory effects of the center-of-mass motion, leading to fast convergence when evaluated numerically. For ${D}_{T},$ one obtains an expansion of similar form that contains terms describing memory effects in single-particle motion. As an example we evaluate ${D}_{C}$ and ${D}_{T}$ for three strongly interacting surface systems through Monte Carlo simulations, and for a simple model diffusion system via molecular dynamics calculations. We show that the n…
Effect of kinks and concerted diffusion mechanisms on mass transport and growth on stepped metal surfaces
Abstract We study the effect of kinks and concerted atomic mechanisms on diffusion processes relevant to metal-on-metal homoepitaxy on fcc metal surfaces vicinal to the fcc (100) direction. First, we carry out extensive finite-temperature molecular dynamics simulations based on the effective medium theory to search for diffusion mechanisms that dominate the mass transport perpendicular and parallel to step edges. Then, the energetics of these processes are studied by ground state calculations. Our results show that kinks play an important role for diffusion both across and along step edges. In particular, the combined effect of kinks and concerted exchange is found to be able to remove loca…