Heteroepitaxial growth modes revisited
It is well known that the outcome of a thin film deposition experiment on a foreign substrate is determined by surface and interface energetics, which can be collected in one parameter, the change in surface energy, Ω. It is common knowledge that at equilibrium conditions, Ω < 0 leads to two-dimensional (2D) growth and Ω > 0 leads to the formation of three-dimensional (3D) islands. Using classical
