DYNAMIC SCALING OF A REACTION-LIMITED DECAY PROCESS

A model of surface deconstruction in 1+1 dimensions is presented in th is paper. The process of decay goes on only at surface sites in a reac tion-limited regime and the statistical properties of surface sites ar e studied in comparison with the well-known results of the Eden growth . In particular, the dynamic behaviour of the short-time exponent beta is investigated for large strips and differences between Eden growth and the present decay model are pointed out. It is shown how a simple scheme of site extraction can produce a multiple cluster decay whose s econdary mechanical effects often arise from and overlap to a generic process of chemical erosion. The analysis of the particles released du ring deconstruction is related to experimental results on highly order ed pyrolythic graphite. Such an analysis can explain some discrepancie s between continuum theory and a specific chemical disaggregation. (C) 1998 Published by Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.