Characterization of submonolayer growth of Cu islands on Cu(001)

Abstract

Submonolayer island growth of Cu on Cu(001) is simulated using energy barriers derived by the atomembedding method of Finnis and Sinclair. We find that the island density during deposition quickly saturates and forms a plateau over a range of the coverage θ. We observe that due to high edge mobility the islands form compact shapes and that the average island size R scales like R ~ θn where n≈ 0.5, in agreement with recent experiments.