Steering effect on the shape of islands for homoepitaxial growth of Cu on Cu(100)

TL;DR

This study investigates how the steering effect influences island shapes during homoepitaxial growth of copper on Cu(100), using combined MD and KMC simulations to reproduce experimental asymmetries and observe size-dependent reversal phenomena.

Contribution

It introduces a combined MD and KMC simulation approach to analyze the steering effect on island shape evolution, reproducing experimental asymmetries and revealing size-dependent reversal behavior.

Findings

Reproduces experimental asymmetric island growth.

Identifies reversal of asymmetry with increasing island size.

Links asymmetry reversal to flux asymmetry on the island's lower terrace.

Abstract

The steering effect on the growth of islands is investigated by combining molecular dynamics (MD) and kinetic Monte Carlo (KMC) simulations. Dynamics of depositing atoms and kinetics of atoms on a substrate are realized by MD and KMC, respectively. The reported experimental results on the asymmetric island growth [van Dijken {\it et al.}, Phys. Rev. Lett. {\bf 82}, 4038 (1999).] is well reproduced. A salient phenomenon, the reversal of the asymmetry, is found as the island size increases, and attributed to the asymmetric flux on the lower terrace of island.