We report on grazing scattering of 25 keV He + ions during epitaxial growth of Cr on Fe(100). The angular distribution and intensity of the scattered particles depend on the coverage in an oscillatory way, which is due to the periodical change of the surface morphology in two-dimensional growth. At high growth temperatures (600 K), pronounced oscillations which persist with little decay in the amplitude indicate (almost) ideal layer-by-layer growth; at low temperatures (350 K), strongly damped oscillations and low intensities of scattered projectiles are due to transient layer-by-layer growth. The angular distributions are well described by Monte Carlo simulations using a classical description for the trajectories. This enables one to derive detailed information on the morphology of the growth front, like, e.g., the mean island distance.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.