1997/01/20 by Daniel Kandel · 4 citations
Earth and Planetary Sciences · Materials Science · Physics and Astronomy · #Solidification and crystal growth phenomena #Surface and Thin Film Phenomena #cond-mat.mtrl-sci #cond-mat.stat-mech #nanoparticles nucleation surface interactions
paper · pdf · doi:10.1103/physrevlett.78.499
published as Phys Rev Lett 78, 499 (1997)
openalex publication_date 1997/01/20 · arxiv created 1998/04/15 · arxiv updated 2009/11/30 · openalex created_date 2016/06/24 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
A model of submonolayer thin film growth is studied, where the attachment of atoms to island edges is hindered by an energy barrier. A novel behavior of the density of islands, Ns, is predicted as a function of flux F and temperature T. For example, Ns scales as FX with X\phantom\rule0ex0ex=\phantom\rule0ex0ex2i*/(i*+3), where i* is the critical island size, in contrast with the standard result X\phantom\rule0ex0ex=\phantom\rule0ex0exi*/(i*+2). The theory is applicable to surfactant mediated growth and chemical vapor deposition. It explains recent experiments, which are inconsistent with the standard theory.