Dynamics and ordering of the nucleationless island formation in heteroepitaxy

Abstract

We study the morphological evolution of strained islands in growing crystal films by use of a continuum description including wetting, elasticity and deposition flux. Wetting breaks translational invariance, allowing the flux to tune different nonlinear regimes. Increasing the flux, we find first an annealing-like dynamics, then a slower but non-conventional ripening followed by a steady regime, while the island density continuously increases. The islands develop spatial correlations and ordering with a narrow two-peaked distance distribution and ridge-like clusters of islands for high flux.