Temperature dependence of the 2D-3D transition in the growth of PTCDA on Ag(111): A real-time X-ray and kinetic Monte Carlo study

We present a real-time X-ray scattering study of the growth modes in organic molecular-beam epitaxy. We have studied the model system 3,4,9,10-perylene-tetracarboxylic dianhydride (PTCDA) on Ag(111) and find a temperature-dependent transition from layer-by-layer growth to islanding. The transition smears out for low substrate temperatures, T, implying that the degree of the layer-by-layer growth of the wetting layer decreases with decreasing T. This behavior has been analyzed quantitatively and reproduced by kinetic Monte Carlo simulations. The implications and consequences of our findings for the understanding of the organic molecular-beam epitaxy are discussed.