A quantitative comparison was made of experimental and Monte Carlo simulation results for the epitaxial growth of Cu on (00l) Cu surfaces in the sub-monolayer regime. The simulations took account of a complete set of hopping processes, the activation energies for which were derived from semi-empirical calculations by using the embedded-atom method. The island separation was measured as a function of incoming flux and temperature. Good quantitative agreement between experiment and simulation was found with regard to the island separation, the activation energies for the predominant processes and the exponents which characterized growth. The simulation results were also analyzed for the case of lower coverages, which were not experimentally accessible. This also provided good agreement with theoretical predictions.

Epitaxial Growth of Cu on Cu(001) - Experiments and Simulations. I.Furman, O.Biham, J.K.Zuo, A.K.Swan, J.F.Wendelken: Physical Review B, 2000, 62[16], R10649-52