Mesoscopic relaxation in homoepitaxial metal growth

We demonstrate that a size-dependent mesoscopic mismatch exists in homoepitaxy, which has a strong impact on the morphology of the islands and the substrate. Atomic scale calculations for double layer Cu islands on Cu(111) reveal that mesoscopic strain relaxations in both islands and the substrate strongly influence the shape of islands and can effect the details of atomic motion near the island.