Self-assembly of three-dimensional metal islands: nonstrained versus strained islands

A theoretical model for the Volmer-Weber growth of three-dimensional metal islands is proposed, with a dipolar island edge-edge interaction. The existence of such an island edge effect makes the island shape dependent on island size. Furthermore, it induces a stable island size against coarsening, leading to self-assembled islands of uniform size. The dependence of the stable island size on total film coverage is shown to be different for nonstrained versus strained islands, in the regime of strong island-island interaction.