Deborah Lacitignola
Dip. Ingegneria Elettrica e dell'Informazione, Universita' di Cassino e del Lazio Meridionale, Italy
Metal growth by an electrochemically controlled process is known
to exhibit peculiar instabilities that have a crucial impact on
the quality of the material and on its functional properties. We
consider a novel mathematical model for alloy electrodeposition
which accounts for the coupling between surface morphology and
surface composition as a means of understanding the formation of
morphological patterns found in electroplating. Conditions for
Turing and Hopf instabilities are derived and the codimension-2
Turing-Hopf bifurcation is analysed. In the Hopf region, the
existence of spiral waves is proven and transition from spirals to
spatiotemporal chaos via spirals break up is observed.