A phase field crystal study of epitaxial island formation on nanomembranes

In this paper the liquid phase heteroepitaxial growth of two-dimensional strained islands on nanomembranes is examined via an amplitude expansion of a binary phase field crystal model. The maximum size that the islands can grow to coherently is shown to be strongly dependent on the nanomembrane thickness and to a lesser extent on the flux rate. For a large membrane-island misfit of about 10%, islands were found to be able to grow coherently with the membrane to almost twice as large as those grown on thick membranes (or infinite substrates). It was also found that when islands are growing on both sides of the membrane, strain relaxation in the membrane leads to more and less favorable growth regions. For thinner membranes this effect increases the degree of ordering of the islands, a result consistent with recent experimental findings.