Impact-driven effects in crystal growth: steering and transient mobility at the Ag(110) surface

Low-energy atomic impacts on the Ag(110) surface are investigated by molecular dynamics simulations based on reliable manybody semiempirical potentials. Trajectory deflections (steering) caused by the atom-surface interaction are observed, together with impact-following, transient-mobility effects. Such processes are quantitatively analyzed and their dependence on the initial kinetic energy and on the impinging direction is discussed. A clear influence of the surface anisotropy on both steering and transient mobility effects is revealed by our simulations for the simple isolated-atom case and in the submonolayer-growth regime. For the latter case, we illustrate the dependence of the distribution of adatoms, addimers, and larger islands on the deposition conditions.