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Why surface roughness is similar at different scales

Most surfaces are rough at many length scales. Simulations show that this characteristic originates at the atomic level in metal-based materials when smooth blocks of these materials are compressed.
  1. Astrid S. de Wijn

    1. Astrid S. de Wijn is in the Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Trondheim 7492, Norway.

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Almost all solid surfaces are rough. This roughness occurs at length scales that encompass 13 orders of magnitude — from the kilometre-scale peaks of mountains, down to atomic-scale bumps. Roughness seems to emerge regardless of what is done to a surface. Yet there is little understanding of how this roughness comes about, and especially why it is often self-affine, meaning that a surface looks similar on different length scales. Writing in Science Advances, Hinkle et al.1 show that self-affine roughness has its origin at the atomic level.

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Nature 578, 366-367 (2020)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-019-03952-z

References

  1. Hinkle, A. R., Nöhring, W. G., Leute, R., Junge, T. & Pastewka, L. Sci. Adv. 6, eaax0847 (2020).

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