Formation of adsorbate structures induced by external electric field in plasma-condensate systems

TL;DR

This paper introduces a new model for plasma-condensate systems that accounts for electric field-induced anisotropy in adatom transfer, revealing how electric field strength influences phase transitions and pattern formation.

Contribution

It presents a novel model incorporating electric field effects on adatom transfer, elucidating conditions for adsorbate patterning and island formation in plasma-condensate systems.

Findings

Electric field strength affects phase transition types.

Multi-layer adsorbate islands form above a critical electric field.

Patterning depends on interaction energy and adsorption coefficient.

Abstract

We present a new model of plasma-condensate system, by taking into account an anisotropy of transference reactions of adatoms between neighbor layers of multi-layer system, caused by the strength of the electric field near substrate. We discuss an influence of the strength of the electric field onto first-order phase transitions and conditions for adsorbate patterning in plasma-condensate systems. It is shown that separated pyramidal-like multi-layer adsorbate islands can be formed in the plasma-condensate system if the strength of the electric field near substrate becomes larger tan the critical value, which depends on the interaction energy of adsorbate and adsorption coefficient.