Surface evolution of elastically stressed films under deposition by a diffuse interface model

We consider the heteroepitaxial growth of thin films by numerical simulations within a diffuse interface model. The model is applicable to describe the self-organization of nanostructures. The influence of strain, surface energies and kinetics on the surface evolution is considered. A matched asymptotic analysis shows the formal convergence of an anisotropic viscous Cahn-Hilliard model to a general surface evolution equation. The system is solved by adaptive finite elements in three dimensions and in special cases compared with sharp interface models. (c) 2005 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.