1994/06/15 by Christian Rätsch, C. Ratsch, Andrew Zangwill +3 · 1 citation
Earth and Planetary Sciences · Materials Science · Physics and Astronomy · #Chemical and Physical Properties of Materials #Theoretical and Computational Physics #cond-mat #nanoparticles nucleation surface interactions
paper · pdf · doi:10.1016/0039-6028(94)90231-3
10 pages, LaTeX 2.09, IC-DDV-94-001
arxiv created 1994/06/15 · openalex publication_date 1994/08/01 · arxiv updated 2009/11/30 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
Monte Carlo simulations of an atomistic solid-on-solid model are used to study the effect of lattice misfit on the distribution of two-dimensional islands sizes as a function of coverage Θ in the submonolayer aggregation regime of epitaxial growth. Misfit promotes the detachment of atoms from the perimeter of large pseudomorphic islands and thus favors their dissolution into smaller islands that relieve strain more efficiently. The number density of islands composed of s atoms exhibits scaling in the form Ns(Θ) ∼ Θ/ ⟨ s ⟩2 g(s/⟨ s ⟩) where ⟨ s ⟩ is the average island size. Unlike the case of homoepitaxy, a rate equation theory based on this observation leads to qualitatively different behavior than observed in the simulations.