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Fluctuations and Gibbs-Thomson law – the simple physics

A. A. CHERNOV1,* , J. J. DEYOREO1, L. N. RASHKOVICH2

Affiliation

  1. Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, 7000 East Avenue, Livermore CA 94550, USA
  2. Moscow State University, 119992 Vorobyevy Gory, Moscow, Russia

Abstract

Crystals of slightly soluble materials should be subject of relatively weak attachment/detachment fluctuations on their faces so that steps on those faces have low kink density. These steps are parallel to the most close packed lattice rows and form polygons on a crystal surface. The process responsible for implementation of the classical Gibbs-Thomson law (GTL) for the polygonal step (in two dimensions, 2D) is kink exchange between the step corners. For the 3D crystallites, this mechanism includes step exchange. If these mechanisms do not operate because of slow fluctuations, the GTL is not applicable. Physics of these processes and conditions for the GTL applicability are discussed on a simple qualitative level..

Keywords

Gibbs-Thomson law, Mechanism of growth, Crystallization.

Submitted at: Nov. 14, 2006
Accepted at: May 15, 2007

Citation

A. A. CHERNOV, J. J. DEYOREO, L. N. RASHKOVICH, Fluctuations and Gibbs-Thomson law – the simple physics, Journal of Optoelectronics and Advanced Materials Vol. 9, Iss. 5, pp. 1191-1197 (2007)