Scaling theory for the growth of amorphous films

Abstract

We present a scaling theory for the time evolution of the morphology of amorphous films, based on the Huygens principle growth algorithm. During the coarsening stage of the growth, the time-dependent correlation length diverges with time as ξ(t)∝${\mathrm{t}}^{\mathrm{p}}$. We calculate p for a range of random and self-similar starting surfaces. When the effect of noise is taken into account, the exponent p reaches a universal value (3/4, in good agreement with experiments.