Alloy Nucleation and Growth The Partial Current Concept

2 ALLOY NUCLEATION AND GROWTH THE PARTIAL CURRENT CONCEPT 

The first steps of alloy deposition differ from the nucleation of a pure metal. If one metal interacts stronger with the substrate, an upd layer formation or even a formation of several layers of a pure phase can precede the formation of alloy nuclei. Special models have been developed for the nucleation process. Mdchev and Lacmann and Milchev have discussed specific questions of alloy nucleation. 

The growth follows the same principles as were discussed for pure metals. The rate of deposition of each component can be described by a partial deposition current density i. The total deposition rate is then the sum of all partial current densities (Wagner and Traud ), for a binary alloy 

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