Dynamic behavior of silver islands growing on GaAs(001)2X4 substrate

The growth of silver deposited on the GaAs(001)-(2 ├ù 4) surface has been investigated via scanning tunneling microscopy (STM). Silver aggregates in the Volmer-Weber mode, forming hut-shaped islands whose average dimension increases according to the power law 1/z, with z Ôëê 1.5 and being the number of silver atoms deposited at constant rate on the substrate. We found that 80% of the islands are elongated in the [110] direction and bounded by {310} facets, while the remaining 20% are elongated in the [1╠ä10] direction and bounded by {210} facets. ┬® 2000 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved