Brownian motion of 2D vacancy islands by adatom terrace diffusion

We have studied the Brownian motion of two-dimensional (2D) vacancy islands on Ag(110) at temperatures between 175 and 215 K. While the detachment of adatoms from the island and their diffusion on the terrace are permitted in this temperature range, the periphery diffusion of single adatoms is prohibited. The present scanning tunneling microscopy results provide the first direct experimental proof that the Brownian motion of the islands follows a simple scaling law with terrace diffusion being the rate limiting process. The activation energy of the vacancy island motion is determined to 0.41 eV.