Kink site positions of ternary systems

8 TERNARY SYSTEMS 8.8.1 Kink site positions of ternary systems 

The concept of kink site positions and the selectivity function of these positions can be extended to ternary systems. The variety of kink site positions on the surface grows with the number of components. This is shown for a close packed cubic structure if only taking into account first neighbors. Then the following kink site positions are possible on the surface. 

The rules of selection between the different kink site positions lead either to the dominance of pure components, Ag, Bg, or Cg, or to the development of dominating mixtures. 

It was approximated that in the treatment of a binary alloy, the character of a kink site position is determined by the previously deposited atom and not so much by the environment of the atom. If this is extended to a ternary alloy one can describe the processes on the surface by nine main reactions 

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