Surface Diffusion and Incorporation Process of Adatom in Fe-Al Multilayer System

Using the ab initio pseudopotential calculations, the surface diffusion and incorporation process at the interface of Fe-Al multilayer system were quantitatively investigated. The hollow site was most stable adsorption site on both Al (001) and Fe (001) surface. The adsorption energies were 8.62 eV for Fe/Al (001) and 5.30 eV for Al/Fe (001) system. The calculated energy barriers for the surface diffusion of adatom were 0.89 eV and 0.61 eV for each system. The energy barrier for the incorporation of Fe adatom into the Al substrate was calculated to be 0.38 eV and the energy gain of the system was 0.49 eV. However, the Al adatom required relatively large energy barrier, 0.99 eV for the incorporation into the Fe substrate resulting in 0.13 eV increase in total energy of the system.