Kinetic Monte Carlo study on the decay of two-dimensional nanostructures: Influence of the activation energy of diffusion on kinetic and morphological properties

Surface diffusion-mediated decay of two-dimensional nanostructures is studied by means of a kinetic Monte Carlo model. We consider several possible choices for the activation energies associated with possible diffusion paths, including simple phenomenological models, as well as results provided by the embedded atom model. Numerical results show that kinetic aspects of the evolution are quite sensitive to the activation energy model chosen. In contrast, morphological aspects of the evolution exhibit a similar qualitative behavior, irrespective of the activation energy model considered. It is shown that this common behavior closely agrees with predictions from the continuous theory of surface diffusion-driven interface decay.