9520842 Family This research program develops and applies new theoretical and simulational modeling techniques to problems in the growth, deposition, and sputtering of materials. The studies involve both the early stages of growth, including nucleation of islands and defects in the submonolayer regime, as well as a study of the evolution and morphology of the surface at long times and long length scales in various materials growth processes, such as molecular-beam- epitaxy and ion-beam sputtering and ion-beam sputter deposition. Considerable effort is being made to continue to identify and better understand far-from-equilibrium processes in the presence of different types of growth instabilities. The concepts and the modeling techniques developed in this project provide us with a deeper fundamental understanding of a wide variety of materials growth processes that are of great technological importance. %%% This research program develops and applies new theoretical and simulational modeling techniques to problems in the growth, deposition, and sputtering of materials. The studies involve both the early stages of growth, including nucleation of islands and defects in the regime where the atoms are a single layer thick, as well as a study of the evolution and morphology of the surface at long times and long length scales in various materials growth processes. Considerable effort is being made to continue to identify and better understand far-from-equilibrium processes in the presence of different types of growth instabilities. The concepts and the modeling techniques developed in this project provide us with a deeper fundamental understanding of a wide variety of materials growth processes that are of great technological importance. ***
