Competitive kinetic processes during homoepitaxial growth on Ge(111)

Abstract
The homoepitaxial growth of Ge(111) has been investigated with reflection high-energy electron diffraction (RHEED) measurements supported by Monte Carlo simulations. At low temperatures, the RHEED oscillations show a monolayer period, while at higher temperatures the oscillation period becomes bilayer. The simulations reveal that a short-range nonthermal diffusion process is dominant at low temperatures, and that the driving force behind the transition to bilayer growth is the increasing importance of thermal diffusion.