title: Stress Induced Branching of Growing Crystals on Curved Surfaces.
abstract: If two-dimensional crystals grow on a curved surface, the Gaussian curvature of the surface induces elastic stress and affects the growth pathway. The elastic stress can be alleviated by incorporating defects or, if this is energetically unfavorable, via an elastic instability which leads to anisotropic growth with branched ribbonlike structures. This instability provides a generic route to grow defect-free crystals on curved surfaces. Depending on the elastic properties of the crystal and the geometric properties of the surface, different growth morphologies with two-, four-, and sixfold symmetry develop. Using a phase field crystal type modeling approach, we provide a microscopic understanding of the morphology selection.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Scientific Computing, Technische Universität Dresden, 01062 Dresden, Germany.
authors.forename: Christian
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Köhler
authors.affiliation: Institute of Scientific Computing, Technische Universität Dresden, 01062 Dresden, Germany.
authors.forename: Rainer
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Backofen
authors.affiliation: Institute of Scientific Computing, Technische Universität Dresden, 01062 Dresden, Germany.|Dresden Center for Computational Materials Science (DCMS), 01062 Dresden, Germany.
authors.forename: Axel
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Voigt