Far-from-equilibrium growth of thin films in a temperature gradient

CANDIA, J; EZEQUIEL V ALBANO

PHYSICAL REVIEW E - STATISTICAL PHYSICS, PLASMAS, FLUIDS AND RELATED INTERDISCIPLINARY TOPICS

APS

Lugar: New York; Año: 2011 vol. 84 p. 50 - 601

1063-651X

The irreversible growth of thin films under far-from-equilibrium conditions is studied in (2 + 1)-dimensionalstrip geometries. Across one of the transverse directions, a temperature gradient is applied by thermal baths atfixed temperatures between T1 and T2, where T1 < Thomc < T2 and T homc= 0.69(1) is the critical temperatureof the system in contact with an homogeneous thermal bath. By using standard finite-size scaling methods,we characterized a continuous order-disorder phase transition driven by the thermal bath gradient with criticaltemperature Tc = 0.84(2) and critical exponents ν = 1.53(6), γ = 2.54(11), and β = 0.26(8), which belong toa different universality class from that of films grown in an homogeneous bath. Furthermore, the effects of thetemperature gradient are analyzed by means of a bond model that captures the growth dynamics. The interplayof geometry and thermal bath asymmetries leads to growth bond flux asymmetries and the onset of transverseordering effects that explain qualitatively the shift in the critical temperature.