Pulsed laser deposition basics

Surface diffusion can be studied with a wide variety of methods using both macroscopic and microscopic techniques of great diversity.98 Basically three methods can be used. One measures the time dependence of the concentration profile of diffusing atoms, one the time correlation of the concentration fluctuations, or the fluctuations of the number of diffusion atoms within a specified area, and one the mean square displacement, or the second moment, of a diffusing atom. When macroscopic techniques are used to study surface diffusion, diffusion parameters are usually derived from the rate of change of the shape of a sharply structured microscopic object, or from the rate of advancement of a sharply defined boundary of an adsorption layer, produced either by using a shadowed deposition method or by fast pulsed-laser thermal desorption of an area covered with an adsorbed species. The derived diffusion parameters really describe the overall effect of many different atomic steps, such as the formation of adatoms from kink sites, ledge sites... 

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