M. C. Tringides Professor - Iowa State University Senior Physicist - Ames Lab - USDOE A113 Zaffarano Iowa State University Ames, Iowa 50011 Phone: (515) 294-6439 Fax: (515) 294-0689 Email: tringides@ameslab.gov

Greetings, I am part of the Condensed Matter Physics Group of the Physics Department at Iowa State University and Ames Laboratory (a DOE facility).

PURPOSE

We are interested in the study of the microscopic processes that control the growth of new structures in atomically clean surfaces, i.e, surface diffusion, nucleation, island formation, atom ordering, etc. The understanding of these processes is important in the growth of custom-made materials. For example, it is important to determine the growth conditions that produce ultrathin films that are highly ordered and uniform, or to understand how the interactions between adatoms affect their mobility and the type of ordered structures they form.

We use two complementary techniques to study the quality of the grown structures: quantitative electron diffraction ( High Resolution LEED) provides information about the average morphology of the surface from the sharpness of the diffraction spots and Scanning Tunneling Microscopy (STM) provides local real space information about the grown structures.

Take a look at the Collective surface diffusion coefficients under non-equilibrium conditions conference.

Read about Self–organized nanostructure formation in the epitaxial growth of Pb/Si(111)