It was pointed out that, after nearly 30 years of research, investigations of surface diffusion and cluster nucleation phenomena using the field ion microscope continued to provide new insights into the fundamental aspects of atomic interactions on surfaces. In an extensive review, the experimental procedures which were used in such surface diffusion studies were described with regard to the atomistics of crystal and epitaxial growth processes. The diffusion parameters for over 20 metal-metal combinations were tabulated, and chemical trends that were associated with the measured values were analyzed. Experiments and theories which led to the discovery of novel diffusion modes and unexpected cluster configurations were described in detail. The effect of surface defects, such as lattice steps and substitutional impurity atoms, as well as external perturbations such as chemisorbed atoms and applied electric fields, upon the surface diffusion rates and transport mechanisms were discussed. Methods for extracting quantitative information on various atom/surface, atom/defect and atom/atom interactions were presented. The subject matter was organized under the subject headings: Observational methods (field ion microscopy, adatom motion, site-mapping, cluster nucleation and diffusion), Data analysis (single atoms [unrestricted random walk, jump length distributions, plane edge effects, directional walk], adatom-adatom interactions [kinetic experiments, equilibrium experiments]), Experimental observations (single atoms [conventional surface diffusion, exchange-mediated surface diffusion, adatom/step interactions, adatom/impurity-atom interactions, electric field effects, effect of adsorbed gases, binding-site determinations], multiple atoms [adatom/adatom interactions, cluster nucleation, cluster diffusion]). The review concluded with a description of the contributions which certain theoretical models had made to the interpretation of field ion microscopic results.

G.L.Kellogg: Surface Science Reports, 1994, 21[1-2], 1-88