Rough growth fronts of evaporated gold films, compared with self-affine and mound growth models

The power spectra, S(q, t), of evaporated gold films at room temperature ar e quantitatively compared with the Das Sarma Tamborenea model. The experime ntal curves fit the theory. However, the noise parameter, deduced from the fitting, disagrees with the predicted value. The two-dimensional (2D) exper imental height-height correlation functions of scanning tunnelling microsco pe (STM) images present a hexagonal anisotropy. This fact agrees with the e xistence of a mound structure in the three-dimensional STM images. In addit ion the 2D Fourier transform module shows the predicted maxima for a mound model. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.