Spiral growth and step edge barriers.

Flat-surface, step-edge, facet–facet, and facet–step diffusion barriers in growth of a Pb mesa

0039-6028/$ see front matter 2008 Elsevier B.V. A doi:10.1016/j.susc.2008.05.009 * Corresponding author. Present address: IPRT Department of Energy, 307D Wilhelm Hall, Ames, IA E-mail address: [email protected] (Y. Han) We obtain important energy parameters for understanding growth kinetics of a faceted Pb mesa. Specifically, extensive calculations of diffusion barriers are performed for a...

Nucleation and step-edge barriers always destabilize step-flow growth of a vicinal surface

We consider the effect of nucleation on a one-dimensional stepped surface, finding that step-flow growth is metastable for any strength of the additional step-edge barrier. The surface is made unstable by the formation of a critical nucleus, whose lateral size is related to the destabilization process on a high-symmetry surface. Arguments based on a critical nucleus of height two, which suggest...

Supporting Online Material for Direct Measurements of Island Growth and Step-Edge Barriers in Colloidal Epitaxy

Modelling spiral growth at dislocations and determination of critical step lengths from pyramid geometries on calcite {} surfaces

To visualise the morphologic changes of a growing spiral pyramid, a mathematical model was developed and implemented in an algorithm that can loop through the sequential time-frames in a growth sequence. The algorithm simulates growth of spiral pyramids with geometries reflecting variation in the step velocity ratio and critical lengths of inequivalent steps. We have developed a new mathematica...

Four Lectures on the Physics of Crystal Growth

Several aspects of the theory of epitaxial crystal growth from atomic or molecular beams are developed from the perspective of statistical physics. Lectures are devoted to the rate equation theory of two-dimensional nucleation and its limitations; the growth of multilayer wedding cakes in the presence of strong step edge barriers; the continuum theory of mound coarsening; and growth-induced ste...