Surface evolution of elastically stressed films under deposition by a diffuse interface model

We consider the heteroepitaxial growth of thin films by numerical simulations within a diffuse interface model. The model is applicable to describe the self-organization of nanostructures. The influence of strain, surface energies and kinetics on the surface evolution is considered. A matched asymptotic analysis shows the formal convergence of an anisotropic viscous Cahn–Hilliard model to a general surface evolution equation. The system is solved by adaptive finite elements in three dimensions and in special cases compared with sharp interface models.