Epitaxial growth in one dimension

Abstract

. The final structure and properties of layers grown by epitaxy techniques are determined in the very early stage of the process. This review describes one-dimensional models for epitaxial growth, emphasizing the basic theoretical concepts employed to analyze nucleation and aggregation phenomena in the submonolayer regime. The main findings regarding the evolution of quantities defining the properties of the system, such as monomer and island densities, and the associated island size, gap length, and capture zone distributions are discussed, as well as the analytical tools used to evaluate them. A concise overview of the most extended algorithms used to simulate the growth processes is provided. Some relevant experimental results are discussed, establishing connections with existing theoretical studies.