Classical coarsening theory in heteroepitaxial systems

Classical coarsening theory, originally developed by Lifshitz, Slyozov, and Wagner (LSW), describes the growth of grains or islands and predicts time-independent self-similar island-size distribution functions. This dynamic scaling is reconsidered here to include island-island elastic interactions, line tension of the islands, and diffusion barriers for adatoms due to the strained substrate with a simple model that preserves self-similarity. These effects significantly modify the size distribution of islands. In particular, the size distribution becomes narrower than originally predicted by LSW theory as derived from the Gibbs-Thomson formula. However, the time dependence of the average island size is described by usual power law formula. (C) 1999 American Institute of Physics. [S0021-8979(99)05422-5].