Related papers: Study of island formation in epitaxially strained …
We investigate the formation and the coarsening dynamics of islands in a strained epitaxial semi-conductor film. These islands are commonly observed in thin films undergoing a morphological instability due to the presence of the elasto…
We study the morphological evolution of strained islands in growing crystal films by use of a continuum description including wetting, elasticity and deposition flux. Wetting breaks translational invariance, allowing the flux to tune…
We study the formation and evolution of coherent islands on lattice mismatched epitaxially strained films. Faceted islands form in films with aniostropic surface tension. Under annealing, these islands ripen until a stable array is formed,…
Island formation in strain-free heteroepitaxial deposition of thin films is analyzed using kinetic Monte Carlo simulations of two minimal lattice models and scaling approaches. The transition from layer-by-layer (LBL) to island (ISL) growth…
We propose a physical model which explains the existence of finite thickness wetting layers in epitaxially strained films. The finite wetting layer is shown to be stable due to the variation of the non-linear elastic free energy with film…
Nonlinear evolution of three-dimensional strained islands or quantum dots in heteroepitaxial thin films is studied via a continuum elasticity model and the development of a nonlinear dynamic equation governing the film morphological…
We investigate the equilibrium properties of strained heteroepitaxial systems, incorporating the formation and the growth of a wetting film, dislocation free island formation, and ripening. The derived phase diagram provides a detailed…
We introduce an off-lattice model with continuous particle distances and pair-potential interactions which allows for the efficient simulation of strained heteroepitaxial growth by means of kinetic Monte Carlo (KMC) simulations. We discuss…
A static variational model for shape formation in heteroepitaxial crystal growth is considered. The energy functional takes into account surface energy, elastic misfit-energy and nucleation energy of dislocations. A scaling law for the…
We investigate island formation during heteroepitaxial growth using an atomistic model that incorporates deposition, activated diffusion and stress relaxation. For high misfit the system naturally evolves into a state characterized by a…
Morphological properties of strained epitaxial films are examined through a mesoscopic approach developed to incorporate both the film crystalline structure and standard continuum theory. Film surface profiles and properties, such as…
We study the energetics of island formation in Stranski-Krastanow growth within a parameter-free approach. It is shown that an optimum island size exists for a given coverage and island density if changes in the wetting layer morphology…
A strained epitaxial film deposited on a deformable substrate undergoes a morphological instability relaxing the elastic energy by surface diffusion. The nonlinear and nonlocal dynamical equations of such films with wetting interactions are…
We study the morphological evolution of strained heteroepitaxial films using a kinetic Monte Carlo method in three dimensions. The elastic part of the problem uses a Green's function method. Isolated islands are observed under deposition…
We study the equilibrium shape, shape transitions and optimal size of strained heteroepitaxial nanoislands with a two-dimensional atomistic model using simply adjustable interatomic pair potentials. We map out the global phase diagram as a…
We showed that a wetting layer in epitaxially strained thin films which decreases with increasing lattice mismatch strain arises due to the variation of nonlinear elastic free energy with film thickness. We calculated how and at what…
Smectic liquid crystal films a few molecular layers thick that are freely suspended in air are used as a model system to study the coalescence of fluids in two dimensions. High-speed video microscopy is used to observe the coalescence of…
We examine the structure and the evolution of Ge islands epitaxially grown on vicinal Si(111) surfaces by scanning tunneling microscopy. Contrary to what is observed on the singular surface, three-dimensional Ge nanoislands form directly…
We use Monte-Carlo simulations to study island formation in the growth of thin semiconducting films deposited on lattice-mismatched substrates. It is known that islands nucleate with critical nuclei of about one atom and grow two…
A model of submonolayer thin film growth is studied, where the attachment of atoms to island edges is hindered by an energy barrier. A novel behavior of the density of islands, N_s, is predicted as a function of flux F and temperature T.…