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A molecular-dynamics study is presented of the mechanism and kinetics of void growth and morphological evolution in ductile metallic thin films subject to biaxial tensile strains. The void becomes faceted, grows, and relieves strain by emission from its surface of pairs of screw dislocations with opposite Burgers vectors. Repeated dislocation generation and propagation leads to formation of a step pattern on the film's surfaces. A simple phenomenological kinetic model of void growth is derived. Such kinetic equations can be used to formulate constitutive theories of plastic deformation for continuum-scale modeling of void evolution. © 2000 American Institute of Physics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]