Homoepitaxial growth of Co on Co 1120/studied by STM

We present the first experimental results from homoepitaxial growth of Co on Co 1120.studied by scanning tunnelling microscopy STM.. The unreconstructed Co 1120.surface consists of zigzag rows of atoms running along thew0001x direction of the Co crystal. From the STM images, we observe that the Co islands are elongated along thew0001xdirection, indicating that the growth is anisotropic. A plot of the auto-correlation function confirms the anisotropy. To investigate the growth further, the substrate temperature and deposition rate were varied at a constant coverage of ; 5"1.%. The size distribution of the Co islands deposited is very sensitive to the substrate temperature, and larger and fewer islands are observed for higher temperatures. q1999 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.