Thermal Roughening and Deroughening at Polymer Interfaces in Electrophoretic Deposition

Thermal scaling and relaxation of the interface width in an electrophoretic deposition of polymer chains is examined by a three-dimensional Monte Carlo simulation on a discrete lattice. Variation of the equilibrium interface width $W_r$ with the temperature $T$ shows deroughening $W_r\propto T^{-\delta }$, with $\delta \sim 1\mathrm{/}4$, at low temperatures and roughening $W_r \propto T^{\nu}$,with$\nu \sim 0.4$ at high temperatures. The roughening-deroughening transition temperature $T_t$ increases with longer chain lengths and is reduced by using the slower segmental dynamics.