F. Gutheim, H. Müller-Krumbhaar, and E. Brener

A model for island formation in the submonolayer epitaxy has been studied in presence of elastic strain by means of Monte Carlo simulation. The description based on rate equations leads to scaling predictions for cluster-statistics and diffusion rates. We generalize these predictions to include the effects of the repulsive 1/r³ elastic interaction, which is caused by the deformation of the underlying substrate. One particular result is, that elastic repulsion between the adsorbed particles hampers the formation of islands and island nucleation is deferred to higher coverage values.