English

Ostwald ripening of faceted two-dimensional islands

Other Condensed Matter 2018-01-11 v1 Statistical Mechanics

Abstract

We study Ostwald ripening of two-dimensional adatom and advacancy islands on a crystal surface by means of kinetic Monte Carlo simulations. At large bond energies the islands are square-shaped, which qualitatively changes the coarsening kinetics. The Gibbs--Thomson chemical potential is violated: the coarsening proceeds through a sequence of `magic' sizes corresponding to square or rectangular islands. The coarsening becomes attachment-limited, but Wagner's asymptotic law is reached after a very long transient time. The unusual coarsening kinetics obtained in Monte Carlo simulations are well described by the Becker--D\"oring equations of nucleation kinetics. These equations can be applied to a wide range of coarsening problems.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.cond-mat/0701338,
  title  = {Ostwald ripening of faceted two-dimensional islands},
  author = {V. M. Kaganer and W. Braun and K. K. Sabelfeld},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:cond-mat/0701338},
  year   = {2018}
}