Correlation function analysis of electrodeposition kinetics and evolving microstructure

Abstract

We model electrodeposition using a formalism developed to describe nucleation and growth processes. In particular, we calculate non-equilibrium, equal-time correlation functions that capture the kinetics of electrodeposition (with particular application to elemental metals) and highlight the evolving correlation lengths and associated roughness in a growing electrodeposited film. These results are interpreted for the case of diffusion-limited growth at late times and, via a phase-field model, for the case of interface-controlled growth. Finally, we discuss the analysis of experimental deposition data using the formalism outlined here and demonstrate that important kinetic information may be readily extracted.