Post-deposition island growth with long-range interactions

The effects of long-range interactions on the scaling of the average island -size, island-size distribution, and saturation rime are investigated for a simple model of post-deposition island growth. While long-range interactio ns are found to have little effect on the scaled island-size distribution, the average island-size is strongly affected. Excellent agreement is found with the proposed scaling form S(theta, t) = theta(z)g(theta t(beta)) for t he average island size S(theta, t) at time t and coverage theta. The expone nts z and beta and the scaling function g(u) depend on the range and sign o f the interaction. Long-range interactions are also found to strongly affec t the saturation time as well as the exponent describing its dependence on coverage. This leads to a simple experimental method to detect the presence of long-range interactions. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights rese rved.