Using scanning tunneling microscopy to underst and diffraction oscillations: Fe growth on Cu(100)

In this article we use scanning tunneling microscope (STM) measurements to improve our understanding of diffraction as a growth diagnostic applied to the complex growth behavior of Fe on Cu(100) at room temperature. We find that kinematical calculations using STM images as input can account quantitatively for many aspects of medium-energy electron diffraction (MEED) results on this system. It is also apparent in the results that an awareness of the different length scales of the problem is important for understanding the MEED data. © 1995, American Vacuum Society. All rights reserved.