Island formation during deposition or etching

The behavior of a non equilibrium lattice-gas model for irreversible format ion of two-dimensional islands during submonolayer deposition or etching is examined in detail. In particular, recent developments in describing captu re of diffusing species by islands of various sizes are reviewed. Both exac t and geometric descriptions of capture are discussed, elucidating the role of the local environment of the islands, and its dependence on island size , on adatom capture and individual island growth rates. Limitations in mean -field treatments of capture are noted. These results are applied to charac terize the growth of Ag islands on Ag(100), Cu/Co islands on Ru(0001), and pits on Si(001) etched with molecular oxygen. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science B.V . All rights reserved.