Nonequilibrium Structure of Metal Films

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This award is made in the Materials Chemistry and Chemical Processing Initiative in support of the collaborative research of Professors Thiel and Evans at Iowa State University. Joint funding is provided by the Divisions of Chemistry and Materials Research. The thrust of the research is an investigation of the diffusion-limited structure of metal films on metal substrates in the low-temperature regime, where thermal diffusion within the film is slow and film structure is strongly influenced by characteristics of the adsorption event. Sophisticated models for film growth will be developed, using a unique combination of molecular dynamics simulations and Monte Carlo simulations and/or rate equation analyses which yield statistical quantities which can be compared to experimental data. Typical systems to be studied are high-surface free energy metals such as iron or nickel on low-surface free energy metals such as silver or gold. Experimentally, two main complementary techniques, low-energy electron diffraction and scanning tunneling microscopy will be employed.