A study was made of migration from ultra-thin Ag islands which had been epitaxially deposited onto Cu(110) or Cu(111) at room temperature. Lateral intensity profiles were obtained by using a photo-electron spectrometer which had a spatial resolution of the order of . An analysis of these profiles as a function of the annealing temperature and time yielded estimates for the diffusion constants and activation energies. The activation energy for Ag diffusion on the (111) Cu plane was equal to 1.0eV. The results clearly demonstrated that surface diffusion could be investigated in considerable detail by this means although, because diffusion occurred over a length scale of many orders of magnitude, a combination of techniques had to be used in order to monitor the complete evolution of a system.

U.Kürpick, G.Meister, A.Goldmann: Applied Surface Science, 1995, 89, 383-92