Self-organization in thin films: a continuous approach

Understanding and mastering thin film growth is one of the major challenges of today's materials science. Effectively, many of the film's properties and performances originate in their growth processes. In particular, thin films present, during deposition, growth and further utilisation, several types of instabilities which lead to self-organization and pattern formation. Self-organization may be desired for the making of films with on-demand properties but also feared since it may produce failure modes leading to the breaking of the material. A few examples are described by continuous models of the reaction-diffusion type. Standard methods of nonlinear dynamics may then provide, at the mesoscale, a coherent description of the formation of nanostructures and deformation patterns in epitaxial growth. In the framework of Multiscale Materials Modeling, such mesoscopic models may consistently link micro- and macroscales, and hopefully provide not only qualitative, but also quantitative descriptions of thin film growth.