Formation and phase transition of Co nanowires on vicinal Cu(111) surfaces

We performed large-scale kinetic Monte-Carlo simulations based on ab initio calculations. It was shown that the interactions between Co adatoms depend on the distance from a surface step and also on the magnitude of the repulsive barrier which is connected to the surface step. It is larger for Co adatoms located at the upper surface terrace and smaller for those located at the lower surface terrace [4] (see Fig. 2). This difference is related to the charge redistribution at the step edge [5].