Scanning Tunneling Microscopy Study of the Thick Film Limit of Kinetic Roughening

Abstract

The spatial and temporal scaling behaviors of vapor-deposited silver films have been investigated by means of scanning tunneling microscopy for the film thickness range ≅10-1000 nm. The roughness, growth, and dynamic scaling exponents have been independently measured ($\alpha =0.82\mathrm{}\pm 0.05,\beta =0.29\mathrm{}\pm 0.06, \mathrm{and} z=2.5\mathrm{}\pm 0.5$), and they exhibit no evolution with film thickness.