M. Le Ster1, P. Krukowski1, M. Rogala1, P. Dabrowski1, I. Lutsyk1, K. Toczek1, K. Podlaski1, T.O. Menteş2, F. Genuzio2, A. Locatelli2, G. Bian3, T.-C. Chiang4, S.A. Brown5, P.J. Kowalczyk1 1 Faculty of Physics and Applied Informatics, University of Lodz, Lodz, Poland 2 Elettra - Sincrotrone Trieste S.C.p.A., Trieste, Italy 3 Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Missouri, Columbia, United States 4 Department of Physics, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, United States 5 The MacDiarmid Institute for Advanced Materials and Nanotechnology, University of Canterbury, Christchurch, New Zealand e-mail: maxime.lester@fis.uni.lodz.pl; pawel.kowalczyk@uni.lodz.pl Acknowledgments This work was sponsored by the National Science Center, Poland (M.L.S.: 2022/47/D/ ST3/03216; P.J.K.: 2019/35/B/ST5/03956) and the MacDiarmid Institute for Advanced Materials and Nanotechnology, New Zealand (S.A.B.). G.B. and T.C.C are supported by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), Office of Science, Office of Basic Energy Sciences, Division of Materials Sciences and Engineering, under award number DE-SC0024294 and DE-FG02-07ER46383. Original paper M. Le Ster et al., Small 21, 2408349 (2025); DOI: 10.1002/smll.202408349. Fig. 1 Figure 1. (a) Schematics of the experimental setup; (b) µ-LEED pattern (E = 40 eV) of a single α-Bi island. The black and red lines indicate graphite and α-Bi zigzag directions, respectively. The twist angle (θ ≃ 28°) is indicated; (c) and (d) 2.25 × 2.25 ~ µm2 LEEM images recorded during Bi deposition at 133.3 and 1107.0 s, respectively; (e–h) Sequence of LEEM images (area in the dashed squares in (c, d)) showing α-Bi growth snapshots recorded at 133.3, 149.6, 204.0, and 544.0 s into deposition. The yellow lines in (h) indicate α-Bi elongation (zigzag) direction, and the red dots indicate the position of the center of mass of the islands during deposition (dashed white lines are linear regressions); (i–k) Time-dependent cross-sections of islands 1, 2, and 3 respectively (panel vertical dimension: 500 nm). All measurements in (b–k) were obtained at room temperature. Surfaces and Interfaces Elettra Highlights 2024–2025 125
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