Control of island morphology by dynamic coalescence of soft-landed clusters

The deposition of preformed clusters oil surfaces has been established as a now way for growing nano-suctures on surfaces. It has been shown that supported island morphology relies on the dynamics of clusters, during the growth, giving rise to shapes from compact to ramified types. This paper identifies and discusses, in the. case of antimony cluster deposits, several processes responsible for the non-equilibrium island shapes: limited kinetic cluster aggregation, size dependent coalescence, wetting-like behavior of antimony clusters on antimony islands. Using successive predetermined cluster sizes during the deposition process to synthesize polymorphic structure involves the interplay of those mechanisms.