Island growth and coarsening in thin films—conservative and nonconservative systems
- 15 May 1990
- journal article
- Published by AIP Publishing in Journal of Applied Physics
- Vol. 67 (10) , 6202-6213
Abstract
A model is developed for time-dependent growth and coarsening of islands in conservative and nonconservative thin-film systems with substrate coverages in the range 0<Φ0 but constant during coarsening, a dynamically scaling distribution and a steady state are also approached asymptotically. The form of the initial distribution has a significant effect on the coarsening kinetics in the transient regime before a dynamically scaling distribution is achieved. When the substrate coverage is allowed to vary for a conservative system, the coverage decreases monotonically with time. Simultaneous thin-film growth and coarsening in nonconservative systems (e.g., by vapor deposition, low-energy ion bombardment) is also examined. In particular, the relationship between growth and coarsening kinetics and mechanisms for ion-surface interactions is discussed.Keywords
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