Dewetting of an ultrathin solid film on a lattice-matched or amorphous substrate

Abstract

An evolution partial differential equation for the surface of a nonwetting single-crystal film in an attractive substrate potential is derived and used to study the dynamics of a pinhole for the varying initial depth of a pinhole and the strengths of the potential and the surface energy anisotropy. The results of the simulations demonstrate how the corresponding parameters may lead to complete or partial dewetting of the film. Anisotropy of the surface energy, through faceting of the pinhole walls, is found to most drastically affect the time to film rupture. In particular, the simulations support the conjecture that the strong anisotropy is capable of a complete suppression of dewetting even when the attractive substrate potential is strong.