Diffusion in Potential Fields: Time-Dependent Capture on Radial and Rectangular Substrates

Abstract

ABSTRACTIn models of nucleation and growth on surfaces, it is usually assumed that the energy surface of the substrate is flat, that diffusion is isotropic, and that capture numbers can be calculated in the diffusion-controlled limit. We lift these restrictions analytically, and introduce a hybrid discrete FFT method of solving for the 2D time-dependent diffusion field of adparticles on general non-uniform substrates. The method, with periodic boundary conditions, is appropriate, for example, following nucleation on a regular (rectangular) array of defects. The programs, which have been realized in Matlab®6.5, are instructive for visualizing potential and diffusion fields, and for producing illustrative movies of crystal growth under various conditions. Here we demonstrate the time-dependence of capture numbers in the initial stages of annealing at high adparticle concentration in the presence of repulsive adparticle-cluster interactions; however it is clear that the method works in general for deposition, growth and annealing at all times.