Phys. Rev. E 64, 031506 (2001) [11 pages]Amorphous thin film growth: Effects of density inhomogeneitiesReceived 23 February 2001; published 30 August 2001 A nonlinear stochastic growth equation for the spatiotemporal evolution of the surface morphology of amorphous thin films in the presence of potential density variations is derived from the relevant physical symmetries and compared to recent experimental results. Numerical simulations of the growth equation exhibit a saturation of the surface morphology for large film thickness originating from the inclusion of the density inhomogeneities. Furthermore, we argue why moundlike surface structures observed on vapor deposited amorphous films are not the result of the Grinfeld instability. © 2001 The American Physical Society URL:
http://link.aps.org/doi/10.1103/PhysRevE.64.031506
DOI:
10.1103/PhysRevE.64.031506
PACS:
61.43.Dq, 68.35.Bs
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