Island formation during deposition or etching

The behavior of a non-equilibrium lattice-gas model for irreversible formation of two-dimensional islands during submonolayer deposition or etching is examined in detail. In particular, recent developments in describing capture of diffusing species by islands of various sizes are reviewed. Both exact and geometric descriptions of capture are discussed, elucidating the role of the local environment of the islands, and its dependence on island size, on adatom capture and individual island growth rates. Limitations in mean-field treatments of capture are noted. These results are applied to characterize the growth of Ag islands on Ag(100), Cu/Co islands on Ru(0001), and pits on Si(001) etched with molecular oxygen.