SCALE-DEPENDENT ROUGHENING KINETICS IN VAPOR-DEPOSITED GOLD

The roughening kinetics of gold deposits grown from vapor was studied by scanning tunneling microscopy. The dynamic scaling yielded the foll owing growth exponents alpha(I) = 0.90 +/- 0.06 and beta(I) = 0.25 +/- 0.06 for L(s) < d(s), and alpha(II) = 0.37 +/- 0.05 and beta(II) = 0. 45 +/- 0.06 for L(s) > d(s), where L(s) is the scan length and d(s) is the average diameter of columns. The scaling properties of the domain -dependent-surface roughness exponents allowed us to give the rational e for experimental data on the fractal behavior of thin metal films.