In the case of metal hetero-epitaxy on Si(111)-(7x7), diffusion was strongly affected by the presence of surface reconstructions which introduced additional constraints into the motion of deposited atoms. In order to determine the diffusion parameters, two different approaches were used. One was the interpretation of experimentally observed morphologies using a coarse-grained kinetic Monte Carlo model. The other was direct observation of adatom movements using UHV scanning tunneling microscopy. The attempt frequency and the barrier to hopping of a single Ag atom between half-unit cells of the reconstruction were estimated in both cases.

Reconstruction-Determined Diffusion of Ag Adatoms on the Si(111)-(7x7) Surface. P.Sobotík, I.Ošťádal, P.Kocán, J.Mysliveček, T.Jarolímek: Czechoslovak Journal of Physics, 2003, 53[1], 69-74