Diffusion of implanted nitrogen in the Cu(001) surface

Auger electron spectroscopy (AES) was used to study the thermally activated diffusion process of low energy N(+) implanted on the Cu(0 0 1) surface, a proposed model system for self-assembled nanostructures. The nitrogen diffusion was characterized as a function of the substrate temperature and the N(+) implantation energy. An experiment that combines a temperature evolution followed by an AES depth profiling was done to clarify the type of diffusion. A comparison of the experimental results with kinetic Monte Carlo simulations suggests a preferential diffusion of the nitrogen to the surface followed by nitride decomposition.