Heteroepitaxial growth is classified into three primary growth modes-- Volmer–Weber (VW), Frank–van der Merwe (FM) and Stranski–Krastanov (SK).
In the VW growth regime, the epitaxial film grows out of 3D nuclei on the growth surface. In this mode, the adsorbate-adsorbate interactions are stronger than adsorbate-surface interactions, leading to island formation by local nucleation and the epitaxial layer is formed when the islands join.
In the FM growth mode, adsorbate-surface and adsorbate-adsorbate interactions are balanced, which promotes 2D layer-by-layer or step-flow epitaxial growth.
The SK mode is a combination of VW and FM modes. In this mechanism, the growth initiates in the FM mode, forming 2D layers, but after reaching a critical thickness, enters a VW-like 3D island growth regime.
Practical epitaxial growth, however, takes place in a high supersaturation regime, away from thermodynamic equilibrium. In that case, the epitaxial growth is governed by adatom kinetics rather than thermodynamics, and 2D step-flow growth becomes dominant.