Related papers: How metal films de-wet substrates - identifying th…
The instability, dynamics and morphological transitions of patterns in thin liquid films on periodic striped surfaces (consisting of alternating less and more wettable stripes) are investigated based on 3-D nonlinear simulations that…
Solid-state dewetting is the process by which thin solid films break up and retract on a substrate, forming nanostructures. While dewetting of single-crystalline films is understood as a surface-energy-driven process mediated by surface…
We use Monte-Carlo simulations to study island formation in the growth of thin semiconducting films deposited on lattice-mismatched substrates. It is known that islands nucleate with critical nuclei of about one atom and grow two…
We present the first microscopic images of the prewetting transition of a liquid film on a solid surface. Pictures of the local coverage map of a helium film on a cesium metal surface are taken while the temperature is raised through the…
Using kinetic Monte Carlo simulations, we develop a framework to relate morphological properties and microscopic dynamics during island growth, coalescence, and initial formation of continuous heteroepitaxial films. The average island width…
We study the surface substrate inhomogeneity effect on the wetting of a spin-1/2 Ising ferromagnetic film in an external magnetic field $H$, using Monte Carlo simulations. It is found the inhomogeneity leads to the formation of islands of…
We report on three key processes involving atomic step motion during the dewetting of thin solid films: (i) the growth of an isolated island nucleated far from a hole, (ii) the spreading of a monolayer rim, and (iii) the zipping of a…
Electronic states of a correlated material can be effectively modified by structural variations delivered from a single-crystal substrate. In this letter, we show that the CrN films grown on MgO (001) substrates have a (001) orientation,…
We investigate the formation and the coarsening dynamics of islands in a strained epitaxial semi-conductor film. These islands are commonly observed in thin films undergoing a morphological instability due to the presence of the elasto…
Thin film deposition on weakly interacting substrates exhibits a unique growth mode characterized by initially strong island formation and rapidly increasing roughness, which reaches a maximum and subsequently decreases as the film returns…
The morphology of epitaxial structures formed in solidification of liquid Au films on the Au(110) surface was studied by molecular dynamics simulation based on a many--body interatomic potential. The (1x2) reconstructed and smooth phase at…
The thermal stability and separation characteristic of anti-sticking layers of Pt/Cr films were studied in this paper. Several types of adhesion layers were investigated: 10.0 nm Pt, 1.5 nm Cr+50.0 nm Pt, 2.5 nm Cr+50.0 nm Pt and 3.5 nm…
The article presents an experimental study of an issue of whether the formation of arrays of Ge quantum dots on the Si(001) surface is an equilibrium process or it is kinetically controlled. We deposited Ge on Si(001) at the room…
The stability of thin liquid films on a surface depends on the excess free energy of the system involving various short-range and long-range interactions. In an unstable condition, thin liquid films may dewet into multiple small-sized…
Chromium thin films deposited on silicon substrates by DC magnetron sputtering were systematically investigated as a function of film thickness, using a DC power of 50 W and a post-deposition annealing temperature of 200 C. Two types of…
Self assembly on suitably chosen substrates is a well exploited root to control the structure and morphology, hence magnetization, of metal films. In particular, the Cu3Au(001) surface has been recently singled out as a good template to…
Wrinkles commonly develop in a thin film deposited on a soft elastomer substrate when the film is subject to compression. Motivated by recent experiments [Agrawal et al., Soft Matter 8, 7138 (2012)] that show how wrinkle morphology can be…
Based on a microscopic density functional theory we investigate the morphology of thin liquidlike wetting films adsorbed on substrates endowed with well-defined chemical heterogeneities. As paradigmatic cases we focus on a single chemical…
We introduce an off-lattice model with continuous particle distances and pair-potential interactions which allows for the efficient simulation of strained heteroepitaxial growth by means of kinetic Monte Carlo (KMC) simulations. We discuss…
Nanometer thin single-walled carbon nanotube (CNT) films collected from the aerosol chemical deposition reactors have gathered attention for their promising applications. Densification of these pristine films provides an important way to…