Fluctuations, line tensions, and correlation times of nanoscale islands on surfaces

We analyze in detail the fluctuations and correlations of the sspatiald Fourier modes of nanoscale single-layer islands on s111d fcc crystal surfaces. We analytically show that the Fourier modes of the fluctuations couple due to the anisotropy of the crystal, changing the power spectrum of the fluctuations, and that the actual eigenmodes of the fluctuations are the appropriate linear combinations of the Fourier modes. Using kinetic Monte Carlo simulations with bond-counting parameters that best match realistic energy barriers for hopping rates, we deduce absolute line tensions as a function of azimuthal orientation from the analyses of the fluctuation of each individual mode. The autocorrelation functions of these modes give the scaling of the correlation times with wavelength, providing us with the rate-limiting kinetics driving the fluctuations, here stepedge diffusion. The results for the energetic parameters are in reasonable agreement with available experimental data for Pbs111d surfaces, and we compare the correlation times of island-edge fluctuations to relaxation times of quenched Pb crystallites.