2,134 research outputs found
Effect of the lattice misfit on the equilibrium shape of strained islands in Volmer-Weber growth
We have studied the effect of the misfit on the equilibrium shape of
three-dimensional pyramidal islands grown on a foreign substrate in the case of
incomplete wetting (Volmer-Weber mode of growth). We have found that tensile
islands have smaller aspect ratios compared with compressed islands owing to
its better adhesion to the substrate. The average strains of consecutive layers
decrease faster with thickness in compressed than in tensile islands. The
strains decrease rapidly with thickness, with the consequence that above a
certain height, the upper layers of the pyramid become practically unstrained
and does not contribute to a further reduction in the upper base. As a result,
the truncated pyramids are not expected to transform into full pyramids. Our
results are in good agreement with experimental observations in different
systems.Comment: 6 pages, 7 figures. Accepted version, minor change
Child universes UV regularization?
It is argued that high energy density excitations, responsible for UV
divergences in quantum field theories, including quantum gravity, are likely to
be the source of child universes which carry them out of the original space
time. This decoupling prevents these high UV excitations from having any
influence on physical amplitudes. Child universe production could therefore be
responsible for UV regularization in quantum field theories which takes into
account gravitational effects. Also child universe production in the last
stages of black hole evaporation, the prediction of absence of tranplanckian
primordial perturbations, connection to the minimum length hypothesis and in
particular connection to the maximal curvature hypothesis are discussed.Comment: 6 pages, RevTex, discussion to the maximum curvature hypothesis adde
Step energies and equilibrium shape of strained monolayer islands
Using a simple atomistic model of anharmonic nearest-neighbors interaction,
we have calculated the step energies of strained hexagonal monolayer islands.
These have been found to decrease with the absolute value of the misfit due to
the strain relaxation at steps. The effect is significantly more pronounced in
the case of positive misfit owing to the stronger repulsive interatomic forces.
Furthermore, (111)-faceted steps are favored at positive misfit (compressed
islands) and, to a lesser extent, (100)-faceted steps at negative misfits
(tensile islands). The result is rationalized in terms of the different bonding
geometries at step edges and a comparison with experiments is included. Thus,
the equilibrium shape transforms from regular hexagons at zero misfit to
threefold symmetric hexagons with increasing misfit.Comment: 6 pages, 5 figures, 1 table. Improved, finally accepted version
including a new figure, a new table and several minor modifications resulting
from discussions with referee
Wormholes and Child Universes
Evidence to the case that classical gravitation provides the clue to make
sense out of quantum gravity is presented. The key observation is the existence
in classical gravitation of child universe solutions or "almost" solutions,
"almost" because of some singularity problems. The difficulties of these child
universe solutions due to their generic singularity problems will be very
likely be cured by quantum effects, just like for example "almost" instanton
solutions are made relevant in gauge theories with breaking of conformal
invariance. Some well motivated modifcations of General Relativity where these
singularity problems are absent even at the classical level are discussed. High
energy density excitations, responsible for UV divergences in quantum field
theories, including quantum gravity, are likely to be the source of child
universes which carry them out of the original space time. This decoupling
could prevent these high UV excitations from having any influence on physical
amplitudes. Child universe production could therefore be responsible for UV
regularization in quantum field theories which take into account
semiclassically gravitational effects. Child universe production in the last
stages of black hole evaporation, the prediction of absence of tranplanckian
primordial perturbations, connection to the minimum length hypothesis and in
particular the connection to the maximal curvature hypothesis are discussed.
Some discussion of superexcited states in the case these states are Kaluza
Klein excitations is carried out. Finally, the posibility of obtaining "string
like" effects from the wormholes associated with the child universes is
discussed.Comment: Talk presented at the IWARA 2009 Conference, Maresias, Brazil,
October 2009, accepted for publication in the proceedings, World Scientific
format, 8 page
Second-layer nucleation in coherent Stranski-Krastanov growth of quantum dots
We have studied the monolayer-bilayer transformation in the case of the
coherent Stranski-Krastanov growth. We have found that the energy of formation
of a second layer nucleus is largest at the center of the first-layer island
and smallest on its corners. Thus nucleation is expected to take place at the
corners (or the edges) rather than at the center of the islands as in the case
of homoepitaxy. The critical nuclei have one atom in addition to a compact
shape, which is either a square of i*i or a rectangle of i*(i-1) atoms, with
i>1 an integer. When the edge of the initial monolayer island is much larger
than the critical nucleus size, the latter is always a rectangle plus an
additional atom, adsorbed at the longer edge, which gives rise to a new atomic
row in order to transform the rectangle into the equilibrium square shape.Comment: 6 pages, 4 figures. Accepted version, minor change
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