Surface and bulk properties of ballistic deposition models with bond breaking

We introduce a new class of growth models, with a surface restructuring mechanism in which impinging particles may dislodge suspended particles, previously aggregated on the same column in the deposit. The flux of these particles is controlled through a probability p . These systems present a crossover, for small values of p , from random to correlated (KPZ) growth of surface roughness, which is studied through scaling arguments and Monte Carlo simulations on one- and two-dimensional substrates. We show that the crossover characteristic time t × scales with p according to t × ∼ p − y with y = ( n + 1 ) and that the interface width at saturation W s a t scales as W s a t ∼ p − δ with δ = ( n + 1 ) / 2 , where n is either the maximal number of broken bonds or of dislodged suspended particles. This result shows that the sets of exponents y = 1 and δ = 1 / 2 or y = 2 and δ = 1 found in all previous works focusing on systems with this same type of crossover are not universal. Using scaling arguments, we show that the bulk porosity P of the deposits scales as P ∼ p y − δ for small values of p . This general scaling relation is confirmed by our numerical simulations and explains previous results present in literature.