Wetting layer thickness and early evolution of epitaxially strained thin films

We propose a physical model which explains the existence of finite thickness wetting layers in epitaxially strained films. The finite wetting layer is shown to be stable due to the variation of the non-linear elastic free energy with film thickness. We show that anisotropic surface tension gives rise to a metastable enlarged wetting layer. The perturbation amplitude needed to destabilize this wetting layer decreases with increasing lattice mismatch. We observe the development of faceted islands in unstable films.Comment: 4 pages, 3 eps figure

Dynamical Mean-Field Theory and Its Applications to Real Materials

Dynamical mean-field theory (DMFT) is a non-perturbative technique for the investigation of correlated electron systems. Its combination with the local density approximation (LDA) has recently led to a material-specific computational scheme for the ab initio investigation of correlated electron materials. The set-up of this approach and its application to materials such as (Sr,Ca)VO_3, V_2O_3, and Cerium is discussed. The calculated spectra are compared with the spectroscopically measured electronic excitation spectra. The surprising similarity between the spectra of the single-impurity Anderson model and of correlated bulk materials is also addressed.Comment: 20 pages, 9 figures, invited paper for the JPSJ Special Issue "Kondo Effect - 40 Years after the Discovery"; final version, references adde

Instabilities in crystal growth by atomic or molecular beams

The planar front of a growing a crystal is often destroyed by instabilities. In the case of growth from a condensed phase, the most frequent ones are diffusion instabilities, which will be but briefly discussed in simple terms in chapter II. The present review is mainly devoted to instabilities which arise in ballistic growth, especially Molecular Beam Epitaxy (MBE). The reasons of the instabilities can be geometric (shadowing effect), but they are mostly kinetic or thermodynamic. The kinetic instabilities which will be studied in detail in chapters IV and V result from the fact that adatoms diffusing on a surface do not easily cross steps (Ehrlich-Schwoebel or ES effect). When the growth front is a high symmetry surface, the ES effect produces mounds which often coarsen in time according to power laws. When the growth front is a stepped surface, the ES effect initially produces a meandering of the steps, which eventually may also give rise to mounds. Kinetic instabilities can usually be avoided by raising the temperature, but this favours thermodynamic instabilities. Concerning these ones, the attention will be focussed on the instabilities resulting from slightly different lattice constants of the substrate and the adsorbate. They can take the following forms. i) Formation of misfit dislocations (chapter VIII). ii) Formation of isolated epitaxial clusters which, at least in their earliest form, are `coherent' with the substrate, i.e. dislocation-free (chapter X). iii) Wavy deformation of the surface, which is presumably the incipient stage of (ii) (chapter IX). The theories and the experiments are critically reviewed and their comparison is qualitatively satisfactory although some important questions have not yet received a complete answer.Comment: 90 pages in revtex, 45 figures mainly in gif format. Review paper to be published in Physics Reports. Postscript versions for all the figures can be found at http://www.theo-phys.uni-essen.de/tp/u/politi