Abstract
We discuss the role of stress in destabilizing flat surfaces of thin solid films. The presence of this instability in stressed and several heteroepitaxial films is widely acknowledged and well documented. We pay special attention to the study of possible in-plane morphologies of the islands which appear as a result of the stress-driven destabilization of flat traction-free interfaces. We also discuss the critical thickness at which these morphologies change.
- Received 27 October 1993
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.49.8310
©1994 American Physical Society