Colloidal model for nucleation and aggregation in one dimension: Accessing the interaction parameters

Through a one-dimensional colloidal model for epitaxial growth, we characterize the nucleation and aggregation processes occurring in a gap between adjacent islands. The timescales associated with deposition, diffusion, aggregation, and nucleation inside the gap are studied in terms of the parameters defining the interaction between colloidal particles. Numerical results from molecular-dynamics (MD) simulations are compared with analytical models and good agreement is found between both data sets. The results for the timescales are used to calculate the associated rates to generate kinetic Monte Carlo (KMC) simulations, which allow exploring larger systems and longer timescales in comparison with MD simulations. The KMC simulations reproduce the global behavior of the densities of islands and monomers as well as the gap length distribution between adjacent islands.