Dynamical characterization of electroless deposition in the diffusion-limited regime

Electroless deposition of metallic aggregates in thin gap geometry has recently been recognized as a good candidate for producing DLA-like morphology. In the continuation of these studies, which were mainly focused on the fractal geometry of the growing aggregate, we address the issue of characterizing the interfacial dynamics via some local measurement of the growth velocity during an electroless deposition process. Direct computations of the harmonic measures of DLA and electroless clusters are compared with experimental estimations of the local growth velocity of these same clusters. This test is shown to be more relevant than the computation of statistical quantities like the generalized fractal dimensions D-q and the f(alpha) singularity spectrum, as advocated by the multifractal formalism. On the one hand, it does not require working with clusters of very large size. On the other, it provides a direct comparison of the theoretical and experimental local distributions of the growth velocity along the interface of the growing cluster. This experimental approach is therefore adapted to a real time determination of the regime during which the growth process can be reasonably approximated by a purely diffusion-limited process.