Kinetic Roughening in Polymer Film Growth by Vapor Deposition

The growth front roughness of linear poly( p-xylylene) films grown by vapor deposition polymerization has been investigated using atomic force microscopy. The interface width w increases as a power law of film thickness d, w~d^β, with β0ex0ex=0ex0ex0.25±0.03, and the lateral correlation length ξ grows as ξ~d1/z, with 1/z0ex0ex=0ex0ex0.31±0.02. This novel scaling behavior is interpreted as the result of monomer bulk diffusion, and belongs to a new universality class that has not been discussed previously.