Stochastic model for the epitaxial growth of two-dimensional islands in the submonolayer regime

Abstract

The diffusion-based growth of islands composed of clusters of metal atoms on a substrate is considered in the aggregation regime. A stochastic approach is proposed to describe the dynamics of island growth based on a Langevin equation with multiplicative noise. The distribution of island sizes, obtained as a solution of the corresponding Fokker–Planck equation, is derived. The time-dependence of island growth on its fractal dimension is analysed. The effect of mobility of the small islands on the growth of large islands is considered. Numerical simulations are in a good agreement with theoretical results.