Fractal Dimension of Disordered Submonolayers Determination from He Scattering Data.pdfVIP

Fractal Dimension of Disordered Submonolayers: Determination from He Scattering Data D.A. Hamburgera,b , A.T. Yinnonb and R.B. Gerberb,c a Department of Physics, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem 91904, Israel 6 b The Fritz Haber Center for Molecular Dynamics, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, 9 9 1 Jerusalem 91904, Israel r a c Department of Chemistry, University of California - Irvine, Irvine, CA 92717, USA M 8 2 Abstract 2 v 2 0 0 2 1 We propose a novel method to measure the fractal dimension of a submono- 5 9 layer metal adatom system grown under conditions of limited diffusivity on / h p a surface. The method is based on measuring the specular peak attenuation - m of He atoms scattered from the surface, as a function of incidence energy. e h c The (Minkowski) fractal dimension thus obtained is that of contours of con- : v i stant electron density of the adatom system. Simulation results are presented, X r based on experimental data. A coverage dependent fractal dimension is found a from a two-decade wide scaling regime. 1 I. INTRODUCTION Fractal dimension (FD) [1] has proved to be a very useful concept for the description of certain disordered systems [2,3]. The experimental determination of this quantity is therefore an important challenge. Scanning tunneling microscope (STM) studies of adsorption and homoepitaxial growth of metal atoms on metal surfaces have recently revealed the formation of fractal-like structures, under conditi