Rate-equation approach to island size distributions and capture numbers insubmonolayer irreversible growth - art. no. 205404

We present a quantitative rate-equation approach to irreversible submonolay er growth on a two-dimensional substrate. Our method explicitly takes into account the existence of a denuded ("capture") zone around every island and the correlations between the size of an island and the corresponding avera ge capture zone. The evolution of the capture-zone distributions is describ ed by a set of Voronoi-area evolution equations, which are coupled to the u sual rate equations for the island densities through local rates of monomer capture. The combined set of equations leads to a fully self-consistent ca lculation of the size- and coverage-dependent capture numbers. The resultin g predictions for the average capture-zone and capture-number distributions are in excellent agreement with experimental results and Monte Carlo simul ations. As a result, the corresponding scaled island size distributions and their dependence on coverage and deposition rate are also accurately predi cted in the precoalescence regime.