Surface Self-Diffusion by Vacancy Motion: Island Ripening on Cu(001)

We have used scanning tunneling microscopy to study the Ostwald ripening of 2D islands of Cu grown on Cu(001). By considering the time dependence of the sizes of individual islands we have characterized the mechanisms for the ripening. Our result is unexpected for a simple metal surface: The flow of atoms from one island to another is limited by attachment-detachment kinetics at the island edges. To explain this result, we propose that the transport of atoms between islands occurs by vacancy, rather than by adatom, diffusion.