Morphology of the Growing Metal Surface

Abstract

Electrocrystallization proceeds through the nucleation of stable clusters, followed by the attachment of adatoms to these clusters. The kinetics of attachment of incoming atoms to a flat macroscopic surface does not differ from that occurring during the growth of supercritical clusters about four times larger than the critical size; with smaller clusters on the other hand the attachment rate decreases, as discussed in Chap. 5. A rigorous description of the growth process however requires a more specific discussion, since the growing surface is characterized by various geometric and energetic peculiarities, which will be considered in this chapter.