Rate equation approach to film growth

Recent progress of the rate equation method in the field of film growth, covers the modeling of island density behavior in the whole range of surface coverages and the stress-driven 2D–3D transition in island morphology, as it occurs in the Stranski–Krastanov growth mechanism. In the former case, rate coefficients are evaluated both on the basis of stochastic approaches which also allow one to deal with spatial correlation effects among nuclei and exploiting computer simulations. In the latter case, rate coefficients for adatom capture and for 2D–3D island transition are computed, respectively, by solving the diffusion equation and exploiting the quasi equilibrium approximation.