Kinetic Monte Carlo simulations of oscillatory shape evolution for electromigration-driven islands

TL;DR

This paper investigates the oscillatory shape evolution of electromigration-driven islands on Cu(100) surfaces using kinetic Monte Carlo simulations and continuum theory, validating the models at high temperature and highlighting differences at lower temperature.

Contribution

It combines KMC simulations with continuum theory to study shape oscillations, providing a detailed comparison and validation for electromigration-driven island evolution.

Findings

Quantitative agreement between KMC and continuum theory at 700 K.

Qualitative differences observed between models at 500 K.

Model parameters successfully match KMC energetics to continuum assumptions.

Abstract

The shape evolution of two-dimensional islands under electromigration-driven periphery diffusion is studied by kinetic Monte Carlo (KMC) simulations and continuum theory. The energetics of the KMC model is adapted to the Cu(100) surface, and the continuum model is matched to the KMC model by a suitably parametrized choice of the orientation-dependent step stiffness and step atom mobility. At 700 K shape oscillations predicted by continuum theory are quantitatively verified by the KMC simulations, while at 500 K qualitative differences between the two modeling approaches are found.