Migration-influenced island size distribution in interfacial growth

By considering island migration, island interaction and temperature, we demonstrate that distribution of both island size and spatial dispersion on surface can be tuned. It is shown that at lower temperature and stronger inter-island interaction, a narrow size distribution is accompanied by spatial uniformity when island migration is free; yet both size and spatial distribution become random when island migration is forbidden. At higher temperature and weaker inter-island interaction, however, entropy effect dominates, and a narrow size distribution is associated with a fluctuant spatial distribution when island migration is forbidden. These unexpected features are enlightening to fabricate quantum dots where uniformity in both size and spatial distributions are essential.