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Results

Click on the following images to download mpeg movies. Note that each pair of movies correspond to different temperatures with the left hand movie being argon and the right hand movie neon.

Ar on Ca, T= 3 K, 15% flux	Ne on Ca, T= 3 K, 15% flux
Ar on Ca, T= 23 K, 15% flux	Ne on Ca, T= 23 K, 15% flux
Ar on Ca, T= 33 K, 15% flux	Ne on Ca, T= 33 K, 15% flux
Ar on Ca, T= 43 K, 15% flux	Ne on Ca, T= 43 K, 15% flux
Ar on Ca, T= 53 K, 15% flux	Ne on Ca, T= 53 K, 15% flux
Ar on Ca, T= 63 K, 15% flux	Ne on Ca, T= 63 K, 15% flux
Ar on Ca, T= 93 K, 15% flux	Ne on Ca, T= 93 K, 15% flux
Ar on Ca, T= 123 K, 15% flux	Ne on Ca, T= 123 K, 15% flux
Ar on Ca, T= 143 K, 15% flux	Ne on Ca, T= 143 K, 15% flux
Ar on Ca, T= 170 K, 15% flux	Ne on Ca, T= 170 K, 15% flux
Ar on Ca, T= 273 K, 15% flux	Ne on Ca, T= 273 K, 15% flux

The first implication of these simulations is that for Ne and Ar, the rate of island growth is highly temperature dependent. Second, the temperature at which growth is a maximum is ~35K for Ne and ~130K for Ar. The increase in growth rate with temperature is clearly due to the increase in the kinetics. Presumably if the lower temperature simulations were implemented over more time steps, more pronounced island growth would eventually occur. However, at very low temperatures, this would take an inordinately long time. Finally, the limited island growth beyond the temperature of maximum growth rate is due to the instability of islands due to rapid evaporation.

In the next section we shall use these results to formulate an atomistic explanation for island growth. This is only possible because the CA rules are atomistically based. The potential importance of this work is now apparent. If we can understand how variations on the atomistic level modify the microstructure, we will be in a position to engineer microstructures by making modifications at the atomic level.

Part III