CROSSOVER SCALING DURING SUBMONOLAYER EPITAXY ON VICINAL SUBSTRATES

The nucleation and growth of two-dimensional islands on a vicinal subs trate during the early stages of epitaxial growth is studied with kine tic Monte Carlo simulations and self-consistent rate equations. The is land size distribution and island number density are shown to satisfy a dynamic crossover scaling form. A generalization of the self-consist ent mean-field rate theory to vicinal substrates provides quantitative agreement with simulations.