Surface nucleation and growth in the system of interacting particles

0389194 - FZÚ 2013 RIV GB eng J - Journal Article
Chvoj, Zdeněk - Chromcová, Zdeňka
Surface nucleation and growth in the system of interacting particles.
Journal of Physics-Condensed Matter. Roč. 24, č. 13 (2012), 1-8. ISSN 0953-8984. E-ISSN 1361-648X
R&D Projects: GA ČR GPP204/10/P331; GA MŠMT ME09048; GA AV ČR IAA100100903
Institutional research plan: CEZ:AV0Z10100521
Keywords : epitaxy * nucleation * island density * graphene * long-range interaction
Subject RIV: BM - Solid Matter Physics ; Magnetism
Impact factor: 2.355, year: 2012

Recent experiments on epitaxial growth of metals on graphene have shown a strong dependence of island densities on coverage. This result cannot be explained by the standard mean-field theories of nucleation. Therefore we extend to higher coverage the former theory of rate equations developed for the initial state of nucleation in a system with adsorbate interaction. We account for the influence the repulsive interaction has on both the attachment of monomers to clusters and on the mobility of atoms in the case of high coverage. We analyze the resulting dependence of the island density on coverage, temperature and F/D ratio. In some regimes, our theory reproduces the experimentally observed substantial growth of island density with coverage for a high deposited amount and the weak dependence on deposition rate F. We also identify local maxima in the temperature dependence of island density as a consequence of long-range repulsive interactions.
Permanent Link: http://hdl.handle.net/11104/0218076