An investigation was made of transient diffusion in low-temperature epitaxial growth of thin-film Cu on the Cu(100) surface with molecular-dynamics simulations. By using a hybrid tight-binding-like potential, a quantitative comparison was made of the various transient-diffusion motions occurring during deposition. The statistics indicated that the impact cascade-diffusion mechanism played a noticeable role in promoting atomic mobility. And the observed diffraction-intensity oscillations showed that a quasi-layer-by-layer growth in the initial stage may take place for temperatures as low as 100K.

Molecular-Dynamics Study of Transient-Diffusion Mechanisms in Low-Temperature Epitaxial Growth. Yue, Y., Ho, Y.K., Pan, Z.Y.: Physical Review B, 1998, 57[11], 6685-8