Application of level set method in simulation of surface roughness in nanotechnologies

One of the limiting factors in applications of plasma etching in nanotechnologies in general will be the control of plasma induced roughness or perhaps control of surface roughness by plasma etching. In this paper we consider roughening of nanocomposite materials during plasma etching for two etching modes (isotropic and anisotropic) by using a level set method. It was found that the presence of two phases with different etch rates (the ratio of the two etch rates is s and the abundance of one phase is p) affects the evolution of the surface roughness and that the etch rate is higher during the isotropic process as compared to the anisotropic process for all values of s and p. At the same time, in case of isotropic process, the higher s leads to a higher overall etch rate. The obtained results apart from their theoretical relevance, have practical implications for surface treatment of nanocomposite materials. (C) 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.