Kinetic roughening of electrodeposited films

Recent work on the kinetic roughening of compact films electrodeposited on two-dimensional substrates is reviewed. We show how characteristic features of the electrodeposition process, in particular mass transport by bulk diffusion in the electrolyte, give rise to morphological instabilities, and present the results of their investigation by linear stability analysis. We then introduce power law descriptions of kinetic roughening and, after a brief discussion of theoretical treatments of electrodeposition incorporating scaling analysis, show that anomalous dynamic scaling describes many experimental results well. Results from Cu films electrodeposited in the absence and presence of organic additives are summarized, and attention is drawn to the possible relationship between the power law exponent β loc (giving the time dependence of the small scale roughness) and the diffusional instability. Further results are presented from other systems including electrodeposited Ni, Ag and alloys, and the major experimental and theoretical challenges that remain are discussed.