We provide a quantitative picture of non-conserved interface growth from a diffusive field making special emphasis on two main issues, the range of validity of the effective small-slopes (interfacial) theories and the interplay between the emergence of morphologically instabilities in the aggregate dynamics, and its kinetic roughening properties. Taking for definiteness electrochemical deposition as our experimental field of reference, our theoretical approach makes use of two complementary approaches: interfacial effective equations and a phase-field formulation of the electrodeposition process. Both descriptions allow us to establish a close quantitative connection between theory and experiments. Moreover, we are able to correlate the anomalous scaling properties seen in some experiments with the failure of the small slope approximation, and to assess the effective re-emergence of standard kinetic roughening properties at very long times under appropriate experimental conditions.
We investigate, using the noise reduction technique, the asymptotic universality class of the well-studied nonequilibrium limited mobility atomistic solid-on-solid surface growth models introduced by Wolf and Villain (WV) and Das Sarma and Tamborenea (DT) in the context of kinetic surface roughening in ideal molecular beam epitaxy. We find essentially all the earlier conclusions regarding the universality class of DT and WV models to be severely hampered by slow crossover and extremely long lived transient effects. We identify the correct asymptotic universality class(es) which differs from ea…
We study the morphological evolution of strained heteroepitaxial films using kinetic Monte Carlo simulations in two dimensions. A novel Green's function approach, analogous to boundary integral methods, is used to calculate elastic energies efficiently. We observe island formation at low lattice misfit and high temperature that is consistent with the Asaro-Tiller-Grinfeld instability theory. At high misfit and low temperature, islands or pits form according to the nucleation theory of Tersoff and LeGoues.
This is a Comment on a recent publication: Y.-P. Zhao et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 85, 3229 (2000). In the Letter, the authors report on an experimental investigation of polymeric (p-xylene) thin film growth and propose a new universality class not previously known. Here, we point out that the critical exponents reported in the Letter are consistent with the critical exponents of Das Sarma-Tamborenea growth model.
The Kardar-Parisi-Zhang (KPZ) equation defines the main universality class for nonlinear growth and roughening of surfaces. But under certain conditions, a conserved KPZ equation (cKPZ) is thought to set the universality class instead. This has non-mean-field behavior only in spatial dimension $d<2$. We point out here that cKPZ is incomplete: it omits a symmetry-allowed nonlinear gradient term of the same order as the one retained. Adding this term, we find a parameter regime where the $1$-loop renormalization group flow diverges. This suggests a phase transition to a new growth phase, possibl…
We studied interplay between kinetic roughening and phase ordering in 1+1 dimensional single-step solid-on-solid growth model with two kinds of particles and Ising-like interaction. Evolution of both geometrical and compositional properties was investigated by Monte Carlo simulations for various strengths of coupling. We found that the initial growth is strongly affected by interaction between species, scaling exponents are enhanced and the ordering on the surface is observed. However, after certain time, ordering along the surface stops and the scaling exponents cross over to exponents of the…
Since publication of the main contributions on the theory of kinetic roughening more than fifteen years ago, many works have been reported on surface growth or erosion that employ the framework of dynamic scaling. This interest was mainly due to the predicted existence of just a few universality classes to describe the statistical properties of the morphology of growing surfaces and interfaces that appear in a wide range of physical systems. Nowadays, this prediction seems to be inaccurate. This situation has caused a clear detriment of these studies in spite of the undeniable existence of kin…
Interplay between kinetic roughening and phase ordering is studied in a growth SOS model with two kinds of particles and Ising-like interaction by Monte Carlo simulations. We found that, for a sufficiently large coupling, growth is strongly affected by interaction between species. Surface roughness increases rapidly with coupling. Scaling exponents for kinetic roughening are enhanced with respect to homogeneous situation. Phase ordering which leads to the lamellar structure persisting for a long time is observed. Surface profiles in strong coupling regime have a saw-tooth form, with the correl…
Conserved surface roughening represents a special case of interface dynamics where the total height of the interface is conserved. Recently, it was suggested [F. Caballero et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 121, 020601 (2018)] that the original continuum model known as `Conserved Kardar-Parisi-Zhang'(CKPZ) equation is incomplete, as additional non-linearity is not forbidden by any symmetry in $d > 1$. In this work, we perform detailed field-theoretic renormalization group (RG) analysis of a general stochastic model describing conserved surface roughening. Systematic power counting reveals additional mar…
We introduce a model that simulates a kinetic roughening process with two kinds of particles: one follows the ballistic deposition (BD) kinetic and, the other, the restricted solid-on-solid (KK) kinetic. Both of these kinetics are in the universality class of the nonlinear KPZ equation, but the BD kinetic has a positive nonlinear constant while the KK kinetic has a negative one. In our model, called BD-KK model, we assign the probabilities p and (1-p) to the KK and BD kinetics, respectively. For a specific value of p, the system behaves as a quasi linear model and the up-down symmetry is recup…
We propose a phenomenological equation to describe kinetic roughening of a growing surface in presence of long range interactions. The roughness of the evolving surface depends on the long range feature, and several distinct scenarios of phase transitions are possible. Experimental implications are discussed.
We report an experimental assessment of surface kinetic roughening properties that are anisotropic in space. Working for two specific instances of silicon surfaces irradiated by ion-beam sputtering under diverse conditions (with and without concurrent metallic impurity codeposition), we verify the predictions and consistency of a recently proposed scaling Ansatz for surface observables like the two-dimensional (2D) height Power Spectral Density (PSD). In contrast with other formulations, this Ansatz is naturally tailored to the study of two-dimensional surfaces, and allows to readily explore t…
The essential features of many interfaces driven out of equilibrium are described by the same equation---the Kardar-Parisi-Zhang (KPZ) equation. How do living interfaces, such as the cell membrane, fit into this picture? In an endeavour to answer such a question, we proposed in [F. Cagnetta, M. R. Evans, D. Marenduzzo, PRL 120, 258001 (2018)] an idealised model for the membrane of a moving cell. Here we discuss how the addition of simple ingredients inspired by the dynamics of the membrane of moving cells affects common kinetic roughening theories such as the KPZ and Edwards-Wilkinson equation…
The kinetic roughening of a driven interface between three dimensional spin-up and spin-down domains in a model with non-conserved scalar order parameter and quenched disorder is studied numerically within a discrete time dynamics at zero temperature. The exponents characterizing the morphology of the interface are obtained close to the depinning-transition
Stochastic model and kinetic Monte Carlo simulation of solute interactions with stationary and moving grain boundaries. II. Application to two-dimensional systems
We argue that symmetries and conservation laws greatly restrict the form of the terms entering the long wavelength description of growth models exhibiting anomalous roughening. This is exploited to show by dynamic renormalization group arguments that intrinsic anomalous roughening cannot occur in local growth models. However some conserved dynamics may display super-roughening if a given type of terms are present.
Growth processes and interface fluctuations can be studied through the properties of global quantities. We here discuss a global quantity that not only captures better the roughness of an interface than the widely studied surface width, but that is also directly conjugate to an experimentally accessible parameter, thereby allowing us to study in a consistent way the global response of the system to a global change of external conditions. Exploiting the full analyticity of the linear Edwards-Wilkinson and Mullins-Herring equations, we study in detail various two-time functions related to that q…
A nonlocal interface equation is derived for two-phase fluid flow, with arbitrary wettability and viscosity contrast c=(mu_1-mu_2)/(mu_1+mu_2), in a model porous medium defined as a Hele-Shaw cell with random gap b_0+delta b. Fluctuations of both capillary and viscous pressure are explicitly related to the microscopic quenched disorder, yielding conserved, non-conserved and power-law correlated noise terms. Two length scales are identified that control the possible scaling regimes and which scale with capillary number as ell_1 ~ b_0(c Ca)^{-1/2} and ell_2 ~ b_0 Ca^{-1}. Exponents for forced fl…
We study the dynamic scaling hypothesis in invariant surface growth. We show that the existence of power-law scaling of the correlation functions (scale invariance) does not determine a unique dynamic scaling form of the correlation functions, which leads to the different anomalous forms of scaling recently observed in growth models. We derive all the existing forms of anomalous dynamic scaling from a new generic scaling ansatz. The different scaling forms are subclasses of this generic scaling ansatz associated with bounds on the roughness exponent values. The existence of a new class of anom…
Inspired by the chemical etching processes, where experiments show that growth rates depending on the local environment might play a fundamental role in determining the properties of the etched surfaces, we study here a model for kinetic roughening which includes explicitly an anisotropic effect in the growth rules. Our model introduces a dependence of the growth rules on the local environment conditions, i.e. on the local curvature of the surface. Variables with different local curvatures of the surface, in fact, present different quenched disorder and a parameter $p$ (which could represent d…
We investigate an off-lattice Eden model where the growth of new cells is performed with a probability dependent on the availability of resources coming externally towards the growing aggregate. Concentration of nutrients necessary for replication is assumed to be proportional to the voids connecting the replicating cells to the outer region, introducing therefore an nonlocal dependence on the replication rule. Our simulations point out that the Kadar-Parisi-Zhang (KPZ) universality class is a transient that can last for long periods in plentiful environments. For conditions of nutrient scarci…
The dynamics of non-equilibrium spatially extended systems are often dominated by fluctuations, due to e.g.\ deterministic chaos or to intrinsic stochasticity. This reflects into generic scale invariant or kinetic roughening behavior that can be classified into universality classes defined by critical exponent values and by the probability distribution function (PDF) of field fluctuations. Suitable geometrical constraints are known to change secondary features of the PDF while keeping the values of the exponents unchanged, inducing universality subclasses. Working on the Kuramoto-Sivashinsky e…
We investigate the kinetic roughening of Ar$^+$ ion-sputtered Pd(001) surface both experimentally and theoretically. \textit{In situ} real-time x-ray reflectivity and \textit{in situ} scanning tunneling microscopy show that nanoscale adatom islands form and grow with increasing sputter time $t$. Surface roughness, $W(t)$, and lateral correlation length, $ξ(t)$, follows the scaling laws, $W(t)\sim t^β$ and $ξ(t)\sim t^{1/z}$ with the exponents $β\simeq 0.20$ and $1/z\simeq 0.20$, for ion beam energy $ε=0.5$ keV, which is inconsistent with the prediction of the Kuramoto-Sivashinsky (KS) model. W…
We study surface and bulk properties of porous films produced by a model in which particles incide perpendicularly to a substrate, interact with deposited neighbors in its trajectory, and aggregate laterally with probability of order $a$ at each position. The model generalizes ballistic-like models by allowing attachment to particles below the outer surface. For small values of $a$, a crossover from uncorrelated deposition (UD) to correlated growth is observed. Simulations are performed in 1+1 and 2+1 dimensions. Extrapolation of effective exponents and comparison of roughness distributions co…
A model for kinetic roughening of one-dimensional interfaces is presented within an intrinsic geometry framework that is free from the standard small-slope and no-overhang approximations. The model is meant to probe the consequences of the latter on the Kardar-Parisi-Zhang (KPZ) description of non-conserved, irreversible growth. Thus, growth always occurs along the local normal direction to the interface, with a rate that is subject to fluctuations and depends on the local curvature. Adaptive numerical techniques have been designed that are specially suited to the study of fractal morphologies…
\begin{abstract} In this Letter we follow the asymptotic spatial correlation of buildings' heights $G_{\infty}(r)$ in the whole of the Netherlands \cite{bag3d}, which comprises $\approx 10,000,000$ buildings, for the purpose of recovering its scaling with respect to space and time given respectively by the exponents $r^{2 α}$ and $t^{2β}$. This allows us to identify the universality class of the evolution of the urban skyline seen as a dynamically evolving interface. Two major classes of cities were identified based on the recovered value of $α=0.4$ and $α= 0$, which correspond respectively to…
We show from numerical simulations that a limited mobility solid-on-solid model of kinetically rough surface growth exhibits extended self-similarity analogous to that found in fluid turbulence. The range over which scale-independent power-law behavior is observed is significantly enhanced if two correlation functions of different order, such as those representing two different moments of the difference in height between two points, are plotted against each other. This behavior, found in both one and two dimensions, suggests that the `relative' exponents may be more fundamental than the `absol…
We argue that a strict relation exists between two in principle unrelated quantities: The size of the growing domains in a coarsening system, and the kinetic roughening of an interface. This relation is confirmed by extensive simulations of the Ising model with different forms of quenched disorder, such as random bonds, random fields and stochastic dilution.
Long-range spatiotemporal correlations may play important roles in nonequilibrium surface growth process. In order to investigate the effects of long-range temporal correlation on dynamic scaling of growing surfaces, we perform extensive numerical simulations of the (1+1)- and (2+1)-dimensional Kardar-Parisi-Zhang (KPZ) growth system in the presence of temporally correlated noise, and compare our results with previous theoretical predictions and numerical simulations. We find that surface morphologies are obviously affected with long-range temporal correlations, and as the temporal correlation…
We have studied the kinetic roughening behavior of the fronts of coffee-ring aggregates via extensive numerical simulations of the off-lattice model considered for this context in [C.\ S.\ Dias {\it et al.}, Soft Matter {\bf 14}, 1903 (2018)]. This model describes ballistic aggregation of patchy colloids and depends on a parameter $r_\mathrm{AB}$ which controls the affinity of the two patches, A and B. Suitable boundary conditions allow us to elucidate a discontinuous pinning-depinning transition at $r_\mathrm{AB}=0$, with the front displaying intrinsic anomalous scaling, but with unusual expo…
A class of solid-on-solid growth models with short range interactions and sequential updates is studied. The models exhibit both smooth and rough phases in dimension d=1. Some of the features of the roughening transition which takes place in these models are related to contact processes or directed percolation type problems. The models are analyzed using a mean field approximation, scaling arguments and numerical simulations. In the smooth phase the symmetry of the underlying dynamics is spontaneously broken. A family of order parameters which are not conserved by the dynamics is defined as we…
Average block entanglement in the 1D XX-model with uncorrelated random couplings is known to grow as the logarithm of the block size, in similarity to conformal systems. In this work we study random spin chains whose couplings present long range correlations, generated as gaussian fields with a power-law spectral function. Ground states are always planar valence bond states, and their statistical ensembles are characterized in terms of their block entropy and their bond-length distribution, which follow power-laws. We conjecture the existence of a critical value for the spectral exponent, belo…
Results of experiments on the dynamics and kinetic roughening of one-dimensional slow-combustion fronts in three grades of paper are reported. Extensive averaging of the data allows a detailed analysis of the spatial and temporal development of the interface fluctuations. The asymptotic scaling properties, on long length and time scales, are well described by the Kardar-Parisi-Zhang (KPZ) equation with short-range, uncorrelated noise. To obtain a more detailed picture of the strong-coupling fixed point, characteristic of the KPZ universality class, universal amplitude ratios, and the universal…
We extend our 2+1 dimensional discrete growth model (PRE 79, 021125 (2009)) with conserved, local exchange dynamics of octahedra, describing surface diffusion. A roughening process was realized by uphill diffusion and curvature dependence. By mapping the slopes onto particles two-dimensional, nonequilibrium binary lattice model emerge, in which the (smoothing/roughening) surface diffusion can be described by attracting or repelling motion of oriented dimers. The binary representation allows simulations on very large size and time scales. We provide numerical evidence for Mullins-Herring or mol…
We study phase ordering dynamics in the three-dimensional nearest-neighbor Ising model, following rapid quenches from infinite to zero temperature. Results on various aspects, viz., domain growth, persistence, aging and pattern, have been obtained via the Glauber Monte Carlo simulations of the model on simple cubic lattice. These are analyzed via state-of-the-art methods, including the finite-size scaling, and compared with those for quenches to a temperature above the roughening transition. Each of these properties exhibit remarkably different behavior at the above mentioned final temperature…
1/f noise at arbitrary low frequences is the way of existence of irreversibility in thermal motion governed by reversible laws of mechanics. This statement not once was confirmed in statistical mechanics beyond its traditional kinetical roughenings. Here we point out that in case of quantum statistical mechanics in principle it is sufficient to avoid such the roughening as the "Fermi golden rule". This means taking into account the time-energy uncertainty principle (time-frequency one in classical limit) and thus uncertainties in characteristics of real collisions and scatterings of particles …
We show that time dependent couplings may lead to nontrivial scaling properties of the surface fluctuations of the asymptotic regime in non-equilibrium kinetic roughening models . Three typical situations are studied. In the case of a crossover between two different rough regimes, the time-dependent coupling may result in anomalous scaling for scales above the crossover length. In a different setting, for a crossover from a rough to either a flat or damping regime, the time dependent crossover length may conspire to produce a rough surface, despite the most relevant term tends to flatten the s…
We investigate the complex spatio-temporal dynamics in avalanche driven surface growth by means of scaling theory. We study local activity statistics, avalanche kinetics, and temporal correlations in the global interface velocity, obtaining different scaling relationships among the involved critical exponents depending on how far from or close to a critical point the system is. Our scaling arguments are very general and connect local and global magnitudes through several scaling relationships. We expect our results to be applicable in a wide range of systems exhibiting interface kinetic roughe…
Relaxation of initially out-of-equilibrium rough interfaces in presence of thermal noise is investigated using Langevin formalism. During thermal equilibration towards the well-known roughening regime, three scaling regimes observed over three successive ranges of length-scales are evidenced: thermal roughening (late stage) at small scales, transient smoothening at intermediate scales and remnant of the initial conditions at large scales. A generalization of the Family-Vicsek scaling is found for the smoothening regime. A distinctive feature of the transient smoothening regime resides in the e…
We present a phase field model for isothermal transformations of two component alloys that includes Onsager kinetic cross coupling between the non-conserved phase field and the conserved concentration field. We also provide the reduction of the phase field model to the corresponding macroscopic description of the free boundary problem. The reduction is given in a general form. Additionally we use an explicit example of a phase field model and check that the reduced macroscopic description, in the range of its applicability, is in excellent agreement with direct phase field simulations. The rel…
We studied scaling in kinetic roughening and phase ordering during growth of binary systems using 1+1 dimensional single-step solid-on-solid model with two components interacting via Ising-like interaction with the strength K. We found that the model exhibits crossover from the intermediate regime, with effective scaling exponents for kinetic roughening significantly larger than for the ordinary single-step growth model, to asymptotic regime with exponents of the Kardar-Parisi-Zhang class. Crossover time and length are exponentially increasing with K. For a given large K, scaling with enhanced…
To study epitaxial thin-film growth, a new model is introduced and extensive kinetic Monte Carlo simulations performed for a wide range of fluxes and temperatures. Varying the deposition conditions, a rich growth diagram is found. The model also reproduces several known regimes and in the limit of low particle mobility a new regime is defined. Finally, a relation is postulated between the temperatures of the kinetic and thermal roughening transitions.
As a first step to understand anomalous kinetic roughening with multifractality in recent experiments of the vapor deposition polymerization (VDP) growth, we study a simple toy model of the VDP growth in a (1+1)-dimensional lattice, along with monomer diffusion, polymer nucleation, limited active end bonding, and shadowing effects. Using extensive numerical simulations, we observe that the global roughness exponent is different from the local one. It is argued that such anomalies in VDP growth are attributed to the instability induced by the nonlocal shadowing effects on active ends of polymer…
The formation and migration of disconnections (line defects constrained to the grain boundary (GB) plane with both dislocation and step character) control many of the kinetic and dynamical properties of GBs and the polycrystalline materials of which they are central constituents. We demonstrate that GBs undergo a finite-temperature topological phase transition of the Kosterlitz-Thouless (KT) type. This phase transition corresponds to the screening of long-range interactions between (and unbinding of) disconnections. This phase transition leads to abrupt change in the behavior of GB migration, …
We study the motion of vortices in the conserved and non-conserved phase-ordering models. We give an analytical method for computing the speed and position distribution functions for pairs of annihilating point vortices based on heuristic scaling arguments. In the non-conserved case this method produces a speed distribution function consistent with previous analytic results. As two special examples, we simulate the conserved and non-conserved O(2) model in two dimensional space numerically. The numerical results for the non-conserved case are consistent with the theoretical predictions. The sp…
We consider the dynamics and kinetic roughening of interfaces embedded in uniformly random media near percolation treshold. In particular, we study simple discrete ``forest fire'' lattice models through Monte Carlo simulations in two and three spatial dimensions. An interface generated in the models is found to display complex behavior. Away from the percolation transition, the interface is self-affine with asymptotic dynamics consistent with the Kardar-Parisi-Zhang universality class. However, in the vicinity of the percolation transition, there is a different behavior at earlier times. By sc…
We derive diffusive macroscopic equations for the particle and energy density of a system whose time evolution is described by a kinetic equation for the one particle position and velocity function f(r,v,t) that consists of a part that conserves energy and momentum such as the Boltzmann equation and an external randomization of the particle velocity directions that breaks the momentum conservation. Rescaling space and time by epsilon and epsilon square respectively and carrying out a Hilbert expansion in epsilon around a local equilibrium Maxwellian yields coupled diffusion equations with spec…
We show that generic kinetic growth processes with surface relaxations can exhibit a new crumpled phase with short-range orientational order at dimensions $d<4$. A sufficiently strong spatially non-local part of the chemical potential associated with the particle current above a threshold in the system can trigger this crumpling. The system can also be in a perturbatively accessible rough phase with long range orientational order but short range positional order at $d<4$ with known scaling exponents. Intriguingly, in $d>4$ we argue that there is no crumpling transition; instead, there is a rou…
We study a moving boundary model of non-conserved interface growth that implements the interplay between diffusive matter transport and aggregation kinetics at the interface. Conspicuous examples are found in thin film production by chemical vapor deposition and electrochemical deposition. The model also incorporates noise terms that account for fluctuations in the diffusive and in the attachment processes. A small slope approximation allows us to derive effective interface evolution equations (IEE) in which parameters are related to those of the full moving boundary problem. In particular, th…
We study the role of the quench temperature $T_f$ in the phase-ordering kinetics of the Ising model with single spin flip in $d=2,3$. Equilibrium interfaces are flat at $T_f=0$, whereas at $T_f>0$ they are curved and rough (above the roughening temperature in $d=3$). We show, by means of scaling arguments and numerical simulations, that this geometrical difference is important for the phase-ordering kinetics as well. In particular, while the growth exponent $z=2$ of the size of domains $L(t)\sim t^{1/z}$ is unaffected by $T_f$, other exponents related to the interface geometry take different v…
We consider the kinetic theory of the quantum and classical Toda lattice models. A kinetic equation of Bethe-Boltzmann type is derived for the distribution function of conserved quasiparticles. Near the classical limit, we show that the kinetic theory depends smoothly on Planck's constant, and explicitly characterise the leading quantum corrections to classical behaviour. The classical kinetic theory is compared with direct numerical simulations and shows excellent agreement. Finally, we connect the Bethe-Boltzmann approach with the classical inverse scattering method, by identifying conserved…
We elucidate a long-standing puzzle about the non-equilibrium universality classes describing self-organized criticality in sandpile models. We show that depinning transitions of linear interfaces in random media and absorbing phase transitions (with a conserved non-diffusive field) are two equivalent languages to describe sandpile criticality. This is so despite the fact that local roughening properties can be radically different in the two pictures, as explained here. Experimental implications of our work as well as promising paths for future theoretical investigations are also discussed.
