A model of condensation seeds evolution on solid surfaces

G. Varga, E. Balázs and L. Füstöss

Budapest University of Technology and Economics, Department of Physics,

Budafoki út 8, Budapest, Hungary, H-1111





On the solid surfaces evolution of condensation seeds can be observed by Scanning Tunneling Microscope (STM). Present work discusses a quantum mechanical model that describes these phenomena. Solid surface is characterized as a set of contours of the time dependent interaction potential. The seeds are the special places on this potential map that attract the impurity atoms. The places of the seeds are determined by the usage of the wave-packet method on the fluctuating potential surface. This method means that the impurity atoms are described as an ensemble of independent particles by Gaussian wave packet. Time dependent Schrödinger equation is governed the time propagation of Gaussian wave packet. The time dependent Schrödinger equation is solved by numerically [1][2]. The propagation of the wave packet provides the condensation seed from the probability density function (PDF). The places of local maximum of PDF correspond to the condensation seeds. The model computations show a realistic dynamic model of seed evolution on solid surfaces.

[1] G. Varga, Surface Science, (1999) vol. 441 p. 472-478.

[2] G. Varga, Applied Surface Science, (1999) vol.144-145 p. 64-68.