Deep learning of surface elastic chemical potential in strained films: from statics to dynamics

Arbitrary h(x) profiles are obtained by using a Perlin Noise generator and the corresponding μₑ profiles are calculated either by a Green's function approximation (GA) or by Finite Element Method (FEM). First, a large dataset is produced by exploiting the GA method and it is then used for the training of the NN model.

The performance of the trained NN is extensively examined, demonstrating its ability to predict μₑ looking both to the training/validation set and to an additional testing set containing different profiles, including sinusoids, gaussians and sharp peaks never considered in the NN training. The NN is then applied to simulate the morphological evolution of strained Ge films, where the predicted μₑ at each integration timestep plays the role of driving force for material redistribution in competition with a surface energy term (proportional to local curvature) and eventually a wetting energy contribution.