VACANCY FORMATION IN HOMOEPITAXIALLY GROWN AG FILMS AND ITS EFFECT ON SURFACE MORPHOLOGY

Synchrotron x-ray diffraction was used to investigate the low-temperature homoepitaxial growth on Ag(001) and Ag( 111) surfaces. For both orientations, the Ag films deposited at T= 100 K were observed to exhibit a 1% surface-normal compressive strain, indicating that an appreciable vacancy concentration (∼2%) is incorporated in the growing film. Concomitantly with the incorporation of vacancies, the growth on Ag(111) leads to the formation of pyramidlike structures with a non-Gaussian distribution of heights, whereas a similar effect was not observed for Ag(001).