Asymptotic Analysis of the Shape and Composition of Alloy Islands in Epitaxial Solid Films
We consider the formation of solid drops (“islands”) occurring in the growth of strained solid films. Beginning from a detailed model for the growth of an alloy film that incorporates the coupling between composition, elastic stress and the morphology of the free boundary, we develop an asymptotic description of the shape and compositional nonuniformity of small alloy islands grown at small deposition rates. A key feature of the analysis is a “thin domain” scaling in the island which enables recasting...