The diffusion of Pt on unreconstructed strained (001) was considered. The strain dependence of the energy barrier to adatom diffusion was calculated by using the embedded atom method. The results predicted that, for a broad range of strain states, the predominant diffusion mechanism was mediated by the formation and motion of a surface crowdion. The saddle-point configuration for simple hopping was predicted to extend over a number of lattice sites. The diffusion-energy barriers to exchange and hopping mechanisms depended upon the size of the cell used in the calculation.

Pt Adatom Diffusion on Strained Pt(001). W.Xiao, P.A.Greaney, D.C.Chrzan: Physical Review B, 2004, 70[3], 033402 (4pp)