Simulation of growth of Cu on Ag(001) at experimental deposition rates

The initial stages of growth of (001)Cu films on (001)Ag substrates have been investigated using the temperature-accelerated dynamics (TAD) simulation method. The acceleration provided by TAD made it possible to simulate the deposition of Cu on (001)Ag at 77 K using a deposition rate of 0.04 ML/s, which matched previously reported experiments. This simulation was achieved without a priori knowledge of the significant atomic processes. The results showed that the increased in-plane lattice parameter of the pseudomorphic Cu reduces the activation energy for the exchange mode of surface diffusion, allowing short-range terrace diffusion and the formation of compact Cu islands on the second film layer at 77 K. Some unexpected complex surface diffusion processes and off-lattice atomic configurations were also observed.