Epitaxial growth of Cu on Cu(001): experiments and simulations

A quantitative comparison between experimental and Monte Carlo simulation results for the epitaxial growth of Cu/Cu(001) in the submonolayer regime is presented. The simulations take into account a complete set of hopping processes whose activation energies are derived from semi-empirical calculations using the embedded-atom method. The island separation is measured as a function of the incoming flux and the temperature. A good quantitative agreement between the experiment and simulation is found for the island separation, the activation energies for the dominant processes, and the exponents that characterize the growth. The simulation results are then analyzed at lower coverages, which are not accessible experimentally, providing good agreement with theoretical predictions as well.