Kinetics of fast island decay.

Kinetics of fast island decay.
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by K. Morgenstern, G. Rosenfeld, G. Comsa, M. R. Sorensen, B. Hammer, E.
Lagsgaard, and F. Besenbacher.

Phys. Rev. B **63**, 045412 (2001).

Abstract
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The kinetics of fast island decay on Ag(111) close to steps has been
studied in STM experiments and atomistic total energy calculations. We
show that a breakdown of the step-edge barrier is not sufficient to
explain the decay rates observed during fast decay events. From the
interpay between experiments and theory, we instead propose that fast
decay originates from concerted diffusion processes, which bypass the
detachment barrier of atoms from kinks and step sites.