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

Mesoscopic Analysis of Structure and Strength of Dislocation Junctions in FCC Metals

We develop a finite element based dislocation dynamics model to simulate the structure and strength of dislocation junctions in FCC crystals. The model is based on anisotropic elasticity theory supplemented by the explicit inclusion of the separation of perfect dislocations into partial dislocations bounding a stacking fault. We demonstrate that the model reproduces in precise detail the structure of the Lomer-Cottrell lock already obtained from atomistic simulations. In light of this success, we also examine the strength of junctions culminating in a stress-strength diagram which is the locus of points in stress space corresponding to dissolution of the junction.Comment: 9 Pages + 4 Figure

A micromechanical model of surface steps

The surface of an epitaxial thin film typically consists of terraces separated by steps of atomic height and it evolves largely by the motion of steps. Steps are sources of stress that interact with other residual stress fields, and these interactions have a profound effect on surface evolution. A model of the elastic field arising from a two-dimensional step is presented as a departure from the commonly used half-plane point-multipole model. The field is calculated asymptotically for small step height up to second order in terms of ‘structural’ parameters that can be determined from empirical data or atomistic calculations. Effects of a lattice mismatch and surface stress are included. The model is shown to be in remarkable agreement with atomistic predictions. It is demonstrated that second-order terms are necessary for understanding non-trivial step–step interactions, and that these second-order fields cannot be described by point sources on a half-plane

A three-dimensional model of step flow mediated crystal growth under the combined influences of stress and diffusion

This paper presents a three-dimensional model of step flow mediated crystal growth which carefully accounts for both stress and terrace diffusion. Two regularization schemes are proposed to deal with the primary difficulty, an infinite elastic self-interaction force on a curved step. The merger of impinging islands and the dynamics of step bunching in a step train are studied numerically using a two-dimensional version of this model

Protein Arrays and Highly

A DNA nanostructure consisting of four four-arm junctions oriented with a square aspect ratio was designed and constructed. Programmable self-assembly of 4 � 4 tiles resulted in two distinct lattice morphologies: uniform-width nanoribbons and two-dimensional nanogrids, which both display periodic square cavities. Periodic protein arrays were achieved by templated selfassembly of streptavidin onto the DNA nanogrids containing biotinylated oligonucleotides. On the basis of a two-step metallization procedure, the 4 � 4 nanoribbons acted as an excellent scaffold for the production of highly conductive, uniform-width, silver nanowires. DNA, well known as the predominant chemical for duplication and storage of genetic information in biology, has also been shown to be highly useful as an engineering material for construction of micrometer-scale objects with nanometer-scale feature resolution. Selfassemblin

The energy of step defects on the TiO2 rutile (110) surface: An ab initio DFT methodology

We present a novel methodology for dealing with quantum size effects (QSE) when calculating the energy per unit length and step–step interaction energy of atomic step defects on crystalline solid surfaces using atomistic slab models. We apply it to the TiO2 rutile (110) surface using density functional theory (DFT) for which it is well-known that surface energies converge in a slow and oscillatory manner with increasing slab size. This makes it difficult to reliably calculate step energies because they are very sensitive to supercell surface energies, and yet the surface energies depend sensitively on the choice of slab chemical formula due to the dominance of QSE at computationally practical slab sizes. The commonly used method of calculating surface energies by taking the intercept of a best fit line of total supercell energies against slab size breaks down and becomes highly unreliable for such systems. Our systematic approach, which can be applied to any crystalline surface, bypasses such statistical estimation techniques and cross checks and makes robust what is otherwise a very unreliable process of extracting the energies of steps. We use the calculated step energies to predict island shapes on rutile (110) which compare favorably with published scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) images