Related papers: Stability and diffusion of surface clusters
We propose a new type of morphological instability in the diffusion-limited growth of faceted crystals from the vapor phase that can explain the formation of thin ice plates at temperatures near -15 C. The instability appears when the…
The diffusion and coalescence of individual atoms on a nanostructured surface are treated in a purely statistical way. From this, analytical formulas are derived which, from a known initial state, give the final cluster size distribution on…
Diffusion of Cu adatoms and dimers on Cu(111) and Ag(111) surfaces is analyzed basing on ab-initio surface potentials. As compared to the simple single adatom jumps that alternate between two states, dimers undergo more complex diffusion…
In a cluster crystal, each lattice site is occupied by multiple soft-core particles. As the number density is increased at zero temperature, a `cascade' of isostructural phase transitions can occur between states whose site occupancy…
The results of a density-functional-theory study of the formation energies of (100)- and (111)-faceted steps on the Pt(111) surface, as well as of the barrier for diffusion of an adatom on the flat surface, are presented. The step formation…
We investigate the formation of cluster crystals with multiply occupied lattice sites on a spherical surface in systems of ultra-soft particles interacting via repulsive, bounded pair potentials. Not all interactions of this kind lead to…
We simulate the sintering of particle aggregates due to surface diffusion. As a method we use Kinetic Monte-Carlo simulations in which elasticity can explicitly be taken into account. Therefore it is possible to investigate the shape…
We present a detailed molecular-dynamics study of the diffusion and coalescence of large (249-atom) gold clusters on graphite surfaces. The diffusivity of monoclusters is found to be comparable to that for single adatoms. Likewise, and even…
Growth of atomic indium chains - 1D islands - on the Si(100)-2x1 surface was observed by scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) at room temperature and simulated by means of a kinetic Monte Carlo method. Density of indium islands and island…
Using molecular dynamic simulations we study a waterlike model confined between two fixed hydrophobic plates. The system is tested for density, diffusion and structural anomalous behavior and compared with the bulk results. Within the range…
The steps at the crystal surfaces could be transparent for the migrating adatoms. In the case of significant transparency the velocity of a given step in a given moment is affected by detachment of atoms from rather distant steps in rather…
Recent experiments on ice formed by water under nanoconfinement provide evidence for a two-dimensional (2D) `square ice' phase. However, the interpretation of the experiments has been questioned and the stability of square ice has become a…
Diffusion in an evolving environment is studied by continuos-time Monte Carlo simulations. Diffusion is modelled by continuos-time random walkers on a lattice, in a dynamic environment provided by bubbles between two one-dimensional…
Model chains are studied via Monte Carlo simulations which are deposited with a fixed flux on a substrate. They may represent, e.g., stiff lipophilic chains with an head group and tail groups mimicking the alkyl chain. After some subsequent…
We computed by a Monte Carlo method derived from the Solid on Solid model, the evolution of a polycrystalline thin film deposited on a substrate during thermal treatment. Two types of substrates have been studied: a single crystalline…
We analyze the collective surface diffusion coefficient, $D_c$, near a first-order phase transition at which two phases coexist and the surface coverage, $\te$, drops from one single-phase value, $\te_+$, to the other one, $\te_-$. Contrary…
We present a numerical study of classical particles diffusing on a solid surface. The particles' motion is modeled by an underdamped Langevin equation with ordinary thermal noise. The particle-surface interaction is described by a periodic…
The diffusion of Ga and N adatoms has been studied for the technologically relevant wurtzite (000bar1) and (0001) surfaces employing density-functional theory. Our calculations reveal a very different diffusivity for Ga and N adatoms on the…
We investigate the finite-temperature phase diagram of polar molecules confined in a quasi-two-dimensional geometry by a harmonic potential along the polarization axis. We employ Quantum Monte Carlo simulations to explore the strongly…
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 -…