Self-limiting growth kinetics of 3D coherent islands

Large 3D coherent islands are found to kinetically resist their further growth during post-deposition annealing of metastable 2D strained films. We reveal that a kinetic energy barrier exists to successive facet-layer growth of 3D strained island at the expense of its surrounding 2D structure. The barrier increases with further growth of the island, which defines a self-limiting behavior of island growth. This self-limiting effect naturally explains a number of relevant features which have been observed experimentally including narrow island size distributions.