Scanning tunnelling microscopic observations showed that the lattice mismatch between Ni and Ru led to a sequence of increasingly relaxed structures in Ni films on (00•1)Ru. Also, the density of Ni islands varied markedly with the thickness of the underlying Ni film. This was associated with an increase in Ni mobility. A reduction, in the Ni adatom diffusion barrier, of 0.3eV was estimated to occur in going from monolayers to 3-layer films. Such effects were shown to affect film growth significantly and, in this case, they promoted smoother film growth.

J.A.Meyer, P.Schmid, R.J.Behm: Physical Review Letters, 1995, 74[19], 3864-7