Title: Crystal growth: Twenty Years After: A stroll through the kinetics of thin film growth, as well as of relaxing and sunbathing nanoparticles Speaker: Alberto Pimpinelli, Rice University
Abstract: Very few natural phenomena happen at thermodynamical equilibrium. Kinetic processes determine the morphology of growing crystals, both in the step flow and island nucleation regime, the relaxation of nanorods towards surface-minimizing shapes, as well as the production of steam from a water solution of gold nanoparticles illuminated by sunlight. I will discuss how statistical mechanics and non-equilibrium thermodynamics allow us to describe and predict these very disparate phenomena. In all cases, I will argue that the coupling of analytical models and numerical methods, such as Monte Carlo simulations, can lead us to a quantitative understanding of the atomistic mechanisms underlying: • the coexistence of competing step bunching and step meandering instabilities at the surface of compound semiconductors; • the nucleation of an adsorbate layer of organic molecules on a substrate; • the morphological evolution of a nanorod and of a colloidal crystals towards their equilibrium shapes; • and the interplay between collective photon and heat transport in dense nanoparticle solutions.
Host: Ted Einstein Refreshments 1:30 pm John S Toll Physics Bldg Room 1117