Saturation and scaling of epitaxial island densities

Journal Article · Mon May 16 04:00:00 EDT 1994 · Physical Review Letters; (United States)

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.72.3194· OSTI ID:7271545

Ratsch, C; Zangwill, A ^[1]; Smilauer, P; Vvedensky, D D ^[2]

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1. School of Physics, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, Georgia 30332 (United States)
2. The Blackett Laboratory, Imperial College, London SW7 2BZ (United Kingdom)

The aggregation of adatoms into 2D islands is studied as a function of coverage [ital FTHETA] and the ratio of surface diffusion rate to deposition rate [ital gerR]=[ital D]/[ital F] by Monte Carlo simulations of a model of epitaxial growth that permits atoms to detach from island edges at a rate determined by a pair bond energy [ital E][sub [ital N]]. The total island density is observed to saturate before coalescence becomes important. In this regime, the density of adatoms [ital N][sub 1][similar to][ital FTHETA][sup [minus][ital r]][ital gerR][sup [minus][omega]] while the density of islands composed of [ital s][gt]1 atoms [ital N][sub [ital s]][similar to][ital FTHETA][l angle][ital s][r angle][sup [minus]2][ital g]([ital s]/[l angle][ital s][r angle]) where the average island size [l angle][ital s][r angle][similar to][ital FTHETAgerR][sup [ital x]]. The exponents [ital r], [omega], and [chi] vary smoothly with [ital E][sub [ital N]].

• DOE Contract Number: FG05-88ER45369
• OSTI ID: 7271545
• Journal Information: Physical Review Letters; (United States), Journal Name: Physical Review Letters; (United States) Vol. 72:20; ISSN 0031-9007; ISSN PRLTAO
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

661300* -- Other Aspects of Physical Science-- (1992-)
71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS
GENERAL PHYSICS
ADSORPTION
CALCULATION METHODS
COALESCENCE
COMPUTERIZED SIMULATION
DIFFUSION
EPITAXY
MICROSTRUCTURE
MONTE CARLO METHOD
MORPHOLOGY
NUCLEATION
SCALING LAWS
SIMULATION
SORPTION