Analysis of a combined influence of substrate wetting and surface electromigration on a thin film stability and dynamical morphologies

Abstract

A PDE-based model combining surface electromigration and wetting is developed for the analysis of morphological stability of ultrathin solid films. Adatom mobility is assumed anisotropic, and two directions of the electric field (parallel and perpendicular to the surface) are discussed and contrasted. Linear stability analyses of small-slope evolution equations are performed, followed by computations of fully nonlinear parametric evolution equations that permit surface overhangs. The results reveal parameter domains of instability for wetting and non-wetting films and variable electric field strength, nonlinear steady-state solutions in certain cases, and interesting coarsening behavior for strongly wetting films.

Submitted to the special issue "Nanoscale wetting of solids on solids" of the journal Comptes Rendus Physique (Olivier Pierre-Louis, Univ. Lyon, Editor)