Thin film growth modes, wetting and cluster nucleation.

We discuss the wetting of a crystalline substrate by a deposit, and the equilibrium and metastable configurations that can be expected under various conditions. The stability of different configurations of the deposit was investigated by the use of molecular dynamics techniques. The chemical potential of uniform film is compared with that of a deposit that aggregates into three-dimensional clusters. In the case where the uniform film is metastable, the rate of nucleation of clusters is calculated in terms of the driving force and the surface and interfacial energies of the system.