Growth surface model with non active sites

Abstract

In this work we studied the effects of non active sites on the substrate of a growing surface. In our model a particle only sticks at the surface if the site where it falls is an active site. However, we allow the deposited particle to diffuse along the surface in accordance with some previously defined mechanism. Using Monte Carlo simulations, and some analytical results, we have investigated the model in (1+1) and (2+1) dimensions, considering different relaxation mechanisms. We show that the inclusion of non active sites is a crucial point in the model. In fact, we have observed that the saturation regime always disappears and that the values of the growth exponent β go to one, at large times, for any mechanism of diffusion we considered in one and two dimensions.