The atomic mechanisms of the diffusion of small adatom islands on face-centered cubic (100) metal surfaces were studied by using semi-empirical embedded-atom model and glue potentials. Attention was focussed on the role played by many-body mechanisms of cluster motion in low-temperature crystal growth. A combination of systematic saddle-point search methods and molecular statics simulations permitted all of the relevant transition paths for cluster motion on a flat surface to be found. Several low-energy concerted mechanisms were found, including row shearing and dimer rotation. The existence of a new low-energy mechanism for embedding an adatom into a cluster was demonstrated. This could contribute to interlayer transport at low temperatures.

Atomic Mechanisms of Cluster Diffusion on Metal FCC (100) Surfaces. O.S.Trushin, P.Salo, M.Alatalo, T.Ala-Nissila: Surface Science, 2001, 482-485[1], 365-9