Numerical and experimental investigations of the size ordering of nanocrystals

The nucleation and growth of particles on the 1–100 nm length scale is a phenomenon of increasing interest in the areas of electronics and optoelectronics. Dealing with the preparation of nanoparticle distribution on a substrate by self-organization, we wish to determine whether conditions exist where the distributions approach an array structure which can be compared to so-called quantum dot organized structures. This means that it is fundamental to obtain particles of the same shape with a low dispersion in size and an isotropic distribution on the substrate. This work is devoted to the numerical investigation of growth phenomena on a plane substrate in the case where diffusion and coalescence are mainly taken into account. Experiments on a model system, i.e. Sn/SiO_x, are compared to simulations.