The effects of competition between random sequential nucleation of point-sized seeds and island growth by adsorption of finite-sized grains

Abstract

We study random sequential adsorption of particles from pool onto a one dimensional substrate following ballistic deposition rules, with separate nucleation and growth processes occurring simultaneously. Nucleation describes the formation of point-sized seeds, and after a seed is sown, it acts as an attractor and grows in size by the addition of grains of a fixed-sized. At each time step either an already-nucleated seed can increase in size, or a new seed may be nucleated. We incorporate a parameter $m$, to describe the relative rates of growth to nucleation. We solve the model analytically to obtain gap size distribution function and a general expression for the jamming coverage as a function of $m$. We show that the jamming coverage $θ(m)$ reaches its maximum value $θ(m)=1$ in the limit $m\rightarrow \infty$ following a power-law $θ(\infty) - θ(m) \sim m^{-1/2}$. We also perform extensive Monte Carlo simulation and find excellent agreement between analytic and numerical results.