Surfactant-Mediated Surface Growth: Nonequilibrium Theory
Abstract
A number of recent experiments have showed that surfactants can modify the growth mode of an epitaxial film, suppressing islanding and promoting layer-by-layer growth. Here a set of coupled equations are introduced to describe the coupling between a growing interface and a thin surfactant layer deposited on the top of the nonequilibrium surface . The equations are derived using the main experimentally backed characteristics of the system and basic symmetry principles. The system is studied using a dynamic-renormalization-group scheme, which provides scaling relations between the roughness exponents. It is found that the surfactant may drive the system into a novel phase, in which the surface roughness is negative, corresponding to a flat surface.
Cite
@article{arxiv.cond-mat/9308014,
title = {Surfactant-Mediated Surface Growth: Nonequilibrium Theory},
author = {Albert-Laszlo Barabasi},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:cond-mat/9308014},
year = {2016}
}
Comments
24 pages, REVTEX, 4 figures (not included)