Book of Abstracts Book of Abstracts - Universität Konstanz

A - 37
The Influence of Growth Kinetics on Island Morphology for Antimony
and Bismuth Diffusion and Aggregation on Graphite
Bernhard Kaiser 1 , Bert Stegemann 1 , Shelley Scott 2;3 , Simon Brown 2;3
1 Institute for Chemistry, Humboldt-University, Berlin, Germany
2 The MacDiarmid Institute for Advanced Materials and Nanotechnology, New Zealand
3 Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Canterbury, Christchurch, New Zealand
The morphology of antimony and bismuth islands has been studied with scanning electron
microscopy (SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and atomic force microscopy
(AFM). Altering the deposition parameters (particle flux and coverage) shifts the balance
between thermodynamics and kinetics. For antimony islands, we observe that for low flux and
coverage the islands are compact, but undergo a transition to dendritic morphologies for higher
flux and coverage regimes, consistent with previous investigations [1]. The islands also become
flatter with increasing flux. For bismuth islands, we find a morphology transition from
hexagonal to six-pointed star with increasing kinetic influence. Also, the island height is
independent of flux, and vertical growth proceeds via an unusual striped layer growth.
Furthermore, for bismuth it is possible to grow nanorods with a well-defined diameter of only a
few nanometers and a length of several micrometers.
References
[1] B. Kaiser, B. Stegemann, H. Kaukel, K . Rademann, Surf. Sci. 496, L18 (2002)
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