Heterodiffusion of Ag adatoms on imperfect Au(1 1 0) surfaces

The hetero-diffusion of Ag adatoms on imperfect Au(1 1 0) surfaces is studied using Molecular Dynamics (MD) simulations. The atomic interactions are described by an Embedded Atom Method (EAM) potential. Static activation energies governing various diffusion processes (jumps and exchanges) are calculated by quenched MD, finding that activation energies for interlayer mobility at straight step edges are somewhat larger than those on the flat surface in the cross-channel [1 0 0]-direction, while interlayer barriers at kinks are considerably lower. Dynamic activation energies are calculated at high temperature from the Arrhenius plots of different diffusion mechanisms and compared to static barriers.