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Science 20 July 1990:
Vol. 249. no. 4966, pp. 264 - 268
DOI: 10.1126/science.249.4966.264
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Articles

Growth and Erosion of Thin Solid Films

G. Steven Bales 1, Robijn Bruinsma 2, Elliott A. Eklund 2, R. P. U. Karunasiri 2, Joseph Rudnick 2, and Andrew Zangwill 1

1 School of Physics, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA 30332
2 Department of Physics, University of California, Los Angeles, CA 90024

Thin films that are grown by the process of sputtering are, by and large, quite unlike the smooth, featureless structures that one might expect. In general, these films have a complicated surface morphology and an extended network of grooves and voids in their interiors. Such features can have a profound effect on the physical properties of a thin film. The surface irregularities and the bulk defects are the result of a growth instability due to competitive shadowing, an effect that also plays a role in geological processes such as erosion. For amorphous thin films, the shadow instability can be described by a remarkably simple model, which can be shown to reproduce many important observed characteristics of thin film morphology.


THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN CITED BY OTHER ARTICLES:
Formation of Ordered Nanoscale Semiconductor Dots by Ion Sputtering.
S. Facsko, T. Dekorsy, C. Koerdt, C. Trappe, H. Kurz, A. Vogt, and H. L. Hartnagel (1999)
Science 285, 1551-1553
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Atomic Force Microscope Studies of Fullerene Films: Highly Stable C60 fcc (311) Free Surfaces.
E. J. SNYDER, M. S. ANDERSON, W. M. TONG, R. S. WILLIAMS, S. J. ANZ, M. M. ALVAREZ, Y. RUBIN, F. N. DIEDERICH, and R. L. WHETTEN (1991)
Science 253, 171-173
   Abstract »    PDF »


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Science. ISSN 0036-8075 (print), 1095-9203 (online)