Nucleation theory beyond the deterministic limit. II. The growth stage.

This work addresses theory of nucleation and condensation based on the continuous Fokker-Plank type kinetic equation for the distribution of supercritical embryos over sizes beyond the deterministic limit. The second part of the work treats the growth stage and the beginning of the Ostwald ripening. We first study in detail the fluctuation-induced spreading of size spectrum at the growth stage. It is shown that the spectrum should be generally obtained by the convolution of the initial distribution with the Gaussian-like Green function with spreading dispersion. The increase in dispersion depends, however, on the growth index m as well as on the space dimension, and the mode of material influx. In particular, we find that the spreading effect on two-dimensional islands growing at a constant material influx is huge at m=1 but almost absent at m=2. Analytical and numerical solutions for the mean size, the dispersion, and the size spectrum are presented in different cases. Finally, the general condition for the stage of Ostwald ripening in an open system with material influx is discussed.