Growth morphology of thin films on metallic and oxide surfaces

In this work we briefly review recent investigations concerning the growth morphology of thin metallic films on the Mo(110) and Ni₃Al(111) surfaces, and Fe and copper phthalocyanine (C₃₂H₁₆N₈Cu) on the Al₂O₃/Ni₃Al(111) surface. Comparison of Ag, Au, Sn, and Pb growth on the Mo(110) surface has shown a number of similarities between these adsorption systems, except that surface alloy formation has only been observed in the case of Sn and Au. In the Pb/Mo(110) and Pb/Ni₃Al(111) adsorption systems selective formation of uniform Pb island heights during metal thin film growth has been observed and interpreted in terms of quantum size effects. Furthermore, our studies showed that Al₂O₃ on Ni₃Al(111) exhibits a large superstructure in which the unit cell has a commensurate relation with the substrate lattice. In addition, copper phthalocyanine chemisorbed weakly onto an ultra-thin Al₂O3 film on Ni₃Al(111) and showed a poor template effect of the Al₂O₃/Ni₃Al(111) system. In the case of iron cluster growth on Al₂O₃/Ni₃Al(111) the nucleation sites were independent of deposition temperature, yet the cluster shape showed a dependence. In this system, Fe clusters formed a regular hexagonal lattice on the Al₂O₃/Ni₃Al(111).