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). (topical review)