Related papers: Scaling regimes for second layer nucleation
The rate of second layer nucleation -- the formation of a stable nucleus on top of a two-dimensional island -- determines both the conditions for layer-by-layer growth, and the size of the top terrace of multilayer mounds in…
We develop a theory for nucleation on top of islands in epitaxial growth based on the derivation of lifetimes and rates governing individual microscopic processes. These processes are strongly affected by the additional step edge barrier…
We develop a theory of nucleation on top of two-dimensional islands bordered by steps with an additional energy barrier $\Delta E_S$ for descending atoms. The theory is based on the concept of the residence time of an adatom on the…
We consider two sequential models of deposition and aggregation for particles. The first model (No Diffusion) simulates surface diffusion through a deterministic capture area, while the second (Sequential Diffusion) allows the atoms to…
The nucleation and growth of two--dimensional islands is studied with Monte Carlo simulations of a pair--bond solid--on--solid model of epitaxial growth. The conventional description of this problem in terms of a well--defined critical…
Nucleation and growth is the dominant relaxation mechanism driving first order phase transitions. In two-dimensional at systems nucleation has been applied to a wide range of problems in physics, chemistry and biology. Here we study…
In studies of island nucleation and growth, the distribution of capture zones, essentially proximity cells, can give more insight than island-size distributions. In contrast to the complicated expressions, ad hoc or derived from rate…
The growth and ordering of a Pb layer deposited on Cu(001) at 150 K has been studied using atom beam scattering. At low coverage, ordered Pb islands with a large square unit cell and nearly hexagonal internal structure are formed. This is a…
Deposition/removal of metal atoms on the hex reconstructed (100) surface of Au, Pt and Ir should present intriguing aspects, since a new island implies hex -> square deconstruction of the substrate, and a new crater the square -> hex…
We develop a theory for the inclusion of adatom interactions in second layer nucleation occurring in epitaxial growth. The interactions considered are due to ring barriers between pairs of adatoms and binding energies of unstable clusters.…
Using computer simulations and scaling ideas, we study one-dimensional models of diffusion, aggregation and detachment of particles from islands in the post-deposition regime, i. e. without flux. The diffusion of isolated particles takes…
We study the relaxation to equilibrium of two dimensional islands containing up to 20000 atoms by Kinetic Monte Carlo simulations. We find that the commonly assumed relaxation mechanism - curvature-driven relaxation via atom diffusion -…
When a system is brought to a metastable state, nuclei of the equilibrium phase form and grow. This is the well-known nucleation and growth of first-order phase transitions. Near a critical point of a continuous phase transition, critical…
Point island models (PIMs) are presented for the formation of supported nanoclusters (or islands) during deposition on flat crystalline substrates at lower submonolayer coverages. These models treat islands as occupying a single adsorption…
We consider irreversible second-layer nucleation that occurs when two adatoms on a terrace meet. We solve the problem analytically in one dimension for zero and infinite step-edge barriers, and numerically for any value of the barriers in…
We have studied the monolayer-bilayer transformation in the case of the coherent Stranski-Krastanov growth. We have found that the energy of formation of a second layer nucleus is largest at the center of the first-layer island and smallest…
The theory of second gradient fluids (which are able to exert shear stresses also in equilibrium conditions) allows us: (i) to describe both the thermodynamical and the mechanical behavior of systems in which an interface is present; (ii)…
The morphological stability of two-dimensional islands nucleated on a substrate during vacuum or vapour-phase atom deposition is investigated. Using simple scaling arguments, it is shown that, contrary to expectation, dendritic islands may…
We consider a discrete-time model for random interface growth which admits exact formulas and converges to the Polynuclear growth model in a particular limit. The height of the interface is initially flat and the evolution involves the…
We study a simplified model for pulsed laser deposition [Phys. Rev. Lett. {\bf 87}, 135701 (2001)] by rate equations. We consider a set of equations, where islands are assumed to be point-like, as well as an improved one that takes the size…