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Bifurcation of surface pattern in epitaxial thin films under anisotropic stresses

Submitted by Yaoyu Pang on
research
thin film
R. Huang Group Research
self assembly
surface pattern

Y. Pang and R. Huang, J. Applied Physics 101, 023519 (2007).

Surface instability of epitaxial thin films leads to a variety of surface patterns. Anisotropy in surface and bulk properties has profound effects on the dynamics of pattern formation. In this study, we theoretically predict that, under anisotropic mismatch stresses, a bifurcation of surface pattern occurs in addition to generic symmetry breaking from isotropic systems. Numerical simulations based on a nonlinear evolution equation demonstrate pattern selection at an early stage and nontrivial patterns for long-time evolution.

Rui Huang

Yanfei:

Thanks for pointing out these two papers. I do have copies of these papers. They are indeed relevant. We probably should have cited them in addition to Lu and Suo's PRB paper. Compared to self-assembled monolayers (may be considered as a film of zero thickness), the patterns of epitaxial islands can be quite different (an effect of surface curvature as well as wetting, I think). Nevertheless, the principle of bifurcation illustrated in this paper is similar to the previous works on monolayers and surface reaction, with a root in the classical half-space problems in elasticity.

RH

Mon, 01/29/2007 - 16:02 Permalink