Abstract

We have investigated the dissolution kinetics of an A metal thin film deposited on a (100) B metal under thermal annealing for a system with a strong B segregation (e.g., Ni/Ag). The interdiffusion is described using both Monte Carlo and mean-field simulations with an effective exchange mechanism derived from the kinetic tight-binding Ising model. Surprisingly, the surface enrichment in substrate B element is found to increase linearly with time instead of following the usual $\sqrt{t}$ law. We demonstrate that this t law occurs when the diffusion coefficient of B atoms in the A deposit is high or when the deposit thickness decreases. Moreover it is shown that, in this surfactant regime, the usual local equilibrium rule which drives the kinetics has to be generalized under the flux of B atoms coming from the deposit/substrate interface. Consequences of this new formulation on nonequilibrium dynamical behaviors during thin film dissolutions are discussed.

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