2013/12/16 by Alberto Pimpinelli, Pimpinelli, Alberto, Levent Tümbek +4
Earth and Planetary Sciences · Engineering · Physics and Astronomy · #FOS: Physical sciences #Materials Science (cond-mat.mtrl-sci) #Phase Equilibria and Thermodynamics #Surface and Thin Film Phenomena #cond-mat.mtrl-sci #nanoparticles nucleation surface interactions
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.1312.4412
openalex publication_date 2013/12/16 · arxiv created 2013/12/18 · arxiv updated 2013/12/19 · openalex created_date 2022/09/12 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
It is known in thin-film deposition that the density of nucleated clusters N varies with the deposition rate R as a power law, N ∼ Rα. The exponent α is a function of the critical nucleus size i in a way that changes with the aggregation-limiting process active in a given system. We extend here to generic aggregation-limiting processes the derivation of the analytical capture-zone distribution function Pβ(s) = aβsβexp(-bβs2) of Pimpinelli and Einstein [Phys. Rev. Lett. 99, 226102 (2007)]. We show that the exponent β is generally related to the critical nucleus size i and to the exponent α by the equality α(2β+ df - 2) = 2i where df is the fractal dimensionality of the clusters. This remarkable results allows one to measure i with no a priori knowledge of the actual aggregation mechanism. We apply this equality to measuring the critical nucleus size in pentacene deposition on mica.