Non-equilibrium surface growth in a hybrid inorganic-organic system

TL;DR

This paper uses kinetic Monte Carlo simulations to explore non-equilibrium growth phenomena in hybrid inorganic-organic systems, revealing complex behaviors like re-entrant growth and critical adsorption rates that differ from equilibrium conditions.

Contribution

It introduces a detailed simulation study of molecular morphology evolution in hybrid systems, highlighting non-equilibrium effects and orientational ordering during growth.

Findings

Re-entrant growth phenomena observed

Identification of a critical adsorption rate

Non-monotonous observables with respect to adsorption rate

Abstract

Using kinetic Monte Carlo simulations, we show that molecular morphologies found in non-equilibrium growth can be strongly different from those at equilibrium. We study the prototypical hybrid inorganic-organic system 6P on ZnO(10-10) during thin film adsorption, and find a wealth of phenomena including re-entrant growth, a critical adsorption rate and observables that are non-monotonous with the adsorption rate. We identify the transition from lying to standing molecules with a critical cluster size and discuss the competition of time scales during growth in terms of a rate equation approach. Our results form a basis for understanding and predicting collective orientational ordering during growth in hybrid material systems.