Initial pseudo-steady state & asymptotic KPZ universality in semiconductor on polymer deposition

The Kardar-Parisi-Zhang (KPZ) class is a paradigmatic example of universality in nonequilibrium phenomena, but clear experimental evidences of asymptotic 2D-KPZ statistics are still very rare, and far less understanding stems from its short-time behavior. We tackle such issues by analyzing surface f...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Scientific reports 2017-06, Vol.7 (1), p.3773-10, Article 3773
Main Authors: Almeida, Renan A. L., Ferreira, Sukarno O., Ferraz, Isnard, Oliveira, Tiago J.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
639/301/299/946
639/766/119/1000
639/766/119/544
639/766/530/2804
Atomic force microscopy
Growth models
Humanities and Social Sciences
multidisciplinary
Polymers
Scaling
Science
Science (multidisciplinary)
Spatial distribution
Statistics
Vacuum
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Summary:The Kardar-Parisi-Zhang (KPZ) class is a paradigmatic example of universality in nonequilibrium phenomena, but clear experimental evidences of asymptotic 2D-KPZ statistics are still very rare, and far less understanding stems from its short-time behavior. We tackle such issues by analyzing surface fluctuations of CdTe films deposited on polymeric substrates, based on a huge spatio-temporal surface sampling acquired through atomic force microscopy. A pseudo -steady state (where average surface roughness and spatial correlations stay constant in time) is observed at initial times, persisting up to deposition of ~10 4 monolayers. This state results from a fine balance between roughening and smoothening, as supported by a phenomenological growth model. KPZ statistics arises at long times, thoroughly verified by universal exponents, spatial covariance and several distributions. Recent theoretical generalizations of the Family-Vicsek scaling and the emergence of log-normal distributions during interface growth are experimentally confirmed. These results confirm that high vacuum vapor deposition of CdTe constitutes a genuine 2D-KPZ system, and expand our knowledge about possible substrate-induced short-time behaviors.
ISSN:2045-2322
2045-2322
DOI:10.1038/s41598-017-03843-1