Competing roughening mechanisms in strained heteroepitaxy: a fast kinetic Monte Carlo study.
We study the morphological evolution of strained heteroepitaxial films using kinetic Monte Carlo simulations in two dimensions. A novel Green's function approach, analogous to boundary integral methods, is used to calculate elastic energies efficiently. We observe island formation at low lattice misfit and high temperature that is consistent with the Asaro-Tiller-Grinfeld instability theory. At high misfit and low temperature, islands or pits form according to the nucleation theory of Tersoff and LeGoues.
Lam
Chi-Hang
CH
Department of Applied Physics, Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hung Hom, Hong Kong, China.
Lee
Chun-Kin
CK
Sander
Leonard M
LM