Nanoscale Equilibrium Crystal Shapes
Abstract
The finite size and interface effects on equilibrium crystal shape (ECS) have been investigated for the case of a surface free energy density including step stiffness and inverse-square step-step interactions. Explicitly including the curvature of a crystallite leads to an extra boundary condition in the solution of the crystal shape, yielding a family of crystal shapes, governed by a shape parameter c. The total crystallite free energy, including interface energy, is minimized for c=0, yielding in all cases the traditional PT shape (z x3/2). Solutions of the crystal shape for c≠0 are presented and discussed in the context of meta-stable states due to the energy barrier for nucleation. Explicit scaled relationships for the ECS and meta-stable states in terms of the measurable step parameters and the interfacial energy are presented.
Cite
@article{arxiv.cond-mat/0501003,
title = {Nanoscale Equilibrium Crystal Shapes},
author = {M. Degawa and F. Szalma and E. D. Williams},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:cond-mat/0501003},
year = {2009}
}
Comments
35 pages