Modeling and Simulation for Solid-State Dewetting Problems

In this talk, I present sharp interface models with anisotropic surface energy and a phase field model for simulating solid-state dewetting and the morphological evolution of patterned islands on a substrate in two and three dimensions. We show how to derive the sharp interface model via thermovariation dynamics, i.e., variation of the interfacial energy via an open curve with two triple points moving along a fixed substrate. The sharp interface model tracks the moving interface explicitly and it is very easy to be handled in two dimensions via arc-length parametrization. The phase field model is governed by the Cahn-Hilliard equation with isotropic surface tension and variable scalar mobility and it easily deals with the complex boundary conditions and/or complicated geometry arising in the solid-state dewetting problem. Since the phase field model does not explicitly track the moving surface, it naturally captures the topological changes that occur during film/island morphology evolution. Efficient and accurate numerical methods for both sharp interface models and phase field models are proposed. They are applied to study numerically different setups of solid-state dewetting including short and long island films, pinch-off, hole dynamics, semi-infinite film, etc. Our results agree with experimental results very well. This talk is based on joint works with Wei Jiang, David J. Srolovitz, Carl V. Thompson, Yan Wang and Quan Zhao.