Rate equations and scaling in pulsed laser deposition

We study a simplified model for pulsed laser deposition [Hinnemann, Phys. Rev. Lett. 87, 135701 (2001)] by rate equations. We consider a set of equations where islands are assumed to be pointlike, as well as an improved one that takes the size of the islands into account. The first set of equations is solved exactly but its predictive power is restricted to a few pulses. The improved set of equations is integrated numerically, is in excellent agreement with simulations, and fully accounts for the crossover from continuous to pulsed deposition. Moreover, we analyze the scaling of the nucleation density and show numerical results indicating that a previously observed logarithmic scaling does not apply.