Growth instabilities of vapor deposited films: atomic size versus deflection effect

Two previously suggested, physically distinct mechanisms for a growth instability of vapor deposited films, the finite atomic size effect and the particle deflection effect due to interatomic attraction, are reconsidered, further analyzed, and compared. We substantiate why the instability caused by interatomic attraction must be considered as the truly underlying instability mechanism. We demonstrate that aspects of the structure zone model of Movchan and Demchishin can also be consistently explained using the growth instability induced by particle deflection instead of the instability arising from the atomic size effect. Most significantly we show that, for vapor deposited amorphous Zr₆₅Al_7.5Cu_27.5-films, the growth instability due to the atomic size effect cannot be present. Received 12 December 2001 Published online 6 June 2002