Nucleation growth and pattern formation in heteroepitaxy

Rate equation treatments of nucleation and growth are recapped, and compared with recent kinetic Monte Carlo simulations and scanning tunneling microscope experiments. New rate-diffusion models are developed to describe (a) nucleation on point defects, with application to island growth of nm-sized Fe and Co particles grown on calcium fluoride substrates; (b) nucleation and diffusion in finite (1 and 2D) deposits, applied to diffusion over, and the break-up of, multilayer deposits of Ag/Ge(1 1 1) and Ag/Fe(1 1 0). A brief discussion of pattern formation in these and similar systems is given.