The effect of diffusion on the steady-state nucleation of 2-dimensional nano-islands was described analytically. A new approach self-consistently took account of coupling between the kinetics of adatoms near to the island edge, their diffusion on the surface and annihilation at other islands. It was shown that, due to this coupling, the nucleation barrier could differ considerably from that predicted by the thermodynamics and could depend upon the diffusion parameters of adatoms. This effect could be used to control the kinetics of nano-island nucleation.

Effect of Diffusion on Nucleation of Two-Dimensional Nano-Islands. M.V.Sorokin, A.E.Volkov: Physical Review E, 2005, 72[5], 051603 (8pp)