REMINDER: Condensed Matter Colloquium Today, 25 January

[ivanisse]

JOINT ICTP/SISSA COLLOQUIUM

ON CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS


Wednesday, 25 January 2012 - 4:30 p.m.

Luigi Stasi Seminar Room, ICTP Leonardo Building (1st floor)


Enge Wang (School of Physics, Peking University)

" Interpretation and prediction of nanostructural evolution based on 
first-principles studies "


Abstract

Pattern formation and decay in the early stage of growth is fundamental 
to many materials physics and chemistry. Understanding the complex 
interplay between factors that influence the evolution of surface-based 
nanostructures can be challenging.  Computer simulation will play an 
important role in providing insight. In this talk, I will first 
introduce a one-, two-, and three-dimensional Ehrlich-Schwoebel (ES) 
barrier in kinetics-driven growth. Within this framework, I will show 
how to control the island shape, the island instability, and the film 
roughness efficiently. Furthermore, I will discuss a novel concept: a 
true upward adatom diffusion on metal surface, which is beyond the 
traditional Ehrlich-Schwoebel (ES) barrier model. This process offers 
new indications as how to use ab initio kinetic Monte Carlo simulation 
can uncover some of the building regulations of the evolution mechanism 
down to atomic-scale.