Kinetics of LPP crystal nucleation and interface morphology studies

The nucleation parameters such as interfacial energy (γ), critical free energy (ΔGcr), critical radius (rcr) and critical nucleus number (ncr) of LPP have been evaluated. Two types of growth patterns (spiral growth and nucleation at facet edges or corners) have been observed. Berg effect and impurity adsorption are responsible for the hopper or skeletal morphology. Step pinning can give rise to diffusion-field overlap in the face's center which can eventually lead to loss of stability of the step trains. The formation of line defect is linked to the embedding of microcrystals of the same phase as growth takes place. Ultimately, it can repair itself after multiple layers have grown.