Experimental results are presented for the deposition of gold onto NaCl surfaces. These reveal significant inadequacies in some detailed aspects of current thin film nucleation and growth theories. The usual rate equations used in existing theories can be modified to allow for two important consequences of the adatom spatial distributions which occur as a result of adatom diffusion and subsequent capture by stable nuclei. Firstly, a non-uniform adatom density will result in a higher nucleation rate than would a uniform distribution of the same total adatom population. Secondly, non-random nucleation leading to a relative scarcity of near neighbour nuclei will reduce the rate of coalescence. These two effects, together with a modified expression for surface coverage which allows for coalescence, are incorporated in the rate equations and computed solutions are compared with the original solutions and with the experimental observations.
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