Recent experimental studies focusing on the morphological properties of surfaces eroded by ion-bombardment report the observation of self-affine fractal surfaces, while others provide evidence about the development of a periodic ripple structure. To explain these discrepancies we derive a stochastic growth equation that describes the evolution of surfaces eroded by ion bombardment. The coeffici...

The fabrication of functional materials via grain growth engineering implicitly relies on altering the mobilities of grain boundaries (GBs) by applying external fields. Although computer simulations have alluded to kinetic roughening as a potential mechanism for modifying GB mobilities, its implications for grain growth have remained largely unexplored owing to difficulties in bridging the wide...

2014 The physical mechanisms governing the equilibrium shape of crystals are described. The roughening transition of a given crystal face is associated with the vanishing of the free energy of a step on that surface. Below the roughening transition, facets of finite size coexist with rounded parts of the surface. Near the boundary of a facet, the shape of the crystal is determined by a fluctuat...

During vapor-phase deposition at 1273 K (1000 C), by pack cementation, of Mo onto 127-lmdiameter Ni wires, two phenomena are observed to occur concurrently, leading to strong surface roughening: (i) the inward radial growth of Kirkendall pores below the wire surface and (ii) the outward growth from the wire surface of protuberances with sizes as large as 15 lm. Highaspect-ratio Kirkendall pores...

We present a modified version of the one-dimensional sine-Gordon model that exhibits a thermodynamic, roughening phase transition, in analogy with the two-dimensional usual sine-Gordon model. The model is suited to study the crystalline growth over an impenetrable substrate and to describe the wetting transition of a liquid that forms layers. We use the transfer integral technique to write down...

The interplay between the contact line elasticity, surface disorder, and dissipation leads to complex and unexpected observations in immiscible flows. Here, we use the Cox–Voinov law to formulate a dynamical evolution equation considering all these effects. We then investigate the roughening transition that occurs in the receding contact lines when the contact line velocity exceeds a critical v...