The Effects of Chemical (isotropic) and Anisotropic Etching Processes on the Roughening of Nanocomposite Substrates

Simulation results of roughening of nanocomposite materials during both isotropic and anisotropic etching processes based on the level set method are presented. It is clearly shown that the presence of two phases with different etching rates affects the development of surface roughness and that some roughness characteristics obey simple scaling laws. In addition, certain scaling laws that describe the time dependence of the root mean square (rms) roughness w for various etching processes and different characteristics of the nanocomposite materials are determined.