Amorphous thin-film growth: Theory compared with experiment

Experimental results on amorphous ZrAlCu thin-film growth and the dynamics of the surface morphology as predicted from a minimal nonlinear stochastic deposition equation are analysed and compared. Key points of this study are: i) an estimation procedure for coefficients entering into the growth equation and ii) a detailed analysis and interpretation of the time evolution of the correlation length and the surface roughness. The results corroborate the usefulness of the deposition equation as a tool for studying amorphous growth processes.