Iron on Graphene: Island Density Scales with Coverage, because of Long Range Interactions
One of the most unexpected findings in our studies of metals deposited on Graphene is the behavior of Fe on Graphene. In classical nucleation when a thin film is deposited on a substrate the island density is independent of coverage after the steady state is reached. For Fe on Graphene, the island density scales linearly with coverage, resulting in higher island densities than commonly observed in other experiments; which indicates the presence of long range repulsive Fe-Fe interactions.
S. M. Binz, M. Hupalo, X. Liu, C. Z. Wang, W. C. Lu, P. A. Thiel, K. M. Ho, E. H. Conrad, and M. C. Tringides, Phys. Rev. Lett. 109, 1 (2012). "High Island Densities and Long Range Repulsive Interactions: Fe on Epitaxial Graphene"