Scanning Tunneling Microscope Studies of Co Growth on the Ru(0001) Surface

摘要

Co growth on the Ru(0001) surface from submonolayer to multilayer at room temperature and with different annealing temperature treatment were studied by using scanning tunneling microscope (STM). At room temperature, the Co forms a 2-D wetting layer at the first layer and followed with grow in the 3-D clusters mode from the second layer. In multilayer with different annealing temperature treatment case, 3-D Co clusters changed into 3-D islands and their height increased with the annealing temperature and then decreased at even higher annealing temperature. In about one monolayer case, the individual Co 2-D islands coalesced together to form Co wetting layers and the Co layer diffused away from the edges of the Ru steps with their shape changed from uniform to compact as the annealing temperature increased, no 3-D Co islands were observed.