The effect of nitrogen pressure on the two-step method deposition of GaN films

GaN thin films were deposited on sapphire (0001) substrates at different nitrogen pressures by pulsed laser deposition (PLD) of GaN target in nitrogen atmosphere. Good single crystal GaN thin films were obtained after annealing at 1000 °C for 15 min in a NH₃ atmosphere. An Nd:YAG pulsed laser with a wavelength of 1064 nm was used as the laser source. The influence of nitrogen pressure on the thickness, crystallinity and surface morphology of GaN films were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), atomic force microscopy (AFM) and Raman spectroscopy. The results show that at low nitrogen pressure, the surface diffusion of adatoms can be influenced by the collisions between the nitrogen gas molecules and the activated atoms, which can influence the kinetic energy of the activated atoms. However, at high nitrogen pressure, the kinetic energy of adatoms is decided by the annealing temperature. In our experimental conditions, the GaN thin films deposited at 0.75 and 7.5 Pa have a high surface morphology and crystalline quality. PACS 71.55.Eq; 74.62.Fj     

Simulation of island aggregation influenced by substrate temperature, incidence kinetic energy and intensity in pulsed laser deposition

Using kinetic Monte Carlo method, we have simulated a pulsed energetic growth process in pulsed laser deposition. During the growth of film, substrate temperature mainly influences upon film morphology by directly enhancing the adatom mobility through the temperature-dependent thermal vibration. By contrast, the effect of incidence kinetic energy on film growth is complex resulting from the collisions between the incident particles and the adatoms. The results show that improving incident kinetic energy cannot significantly accelerate the migration rate of adatom but change surface microstructure and promote single adatom formation resulting in more island aggregation density. Moreover, since pulse-influx characterizes pulsed laser deposition, the intensity per pulse contributes to the evolvement of nucleation density and the results illustrate that a general scaling law different from ordinary power law still exists in energetic growth of pulsed laser deposition.     

Simulation of multilayer Cu/Pd（100） heteroepitaxial growth by pulse laser deposition

The heteroepitaxial growth of multilayer Cu/Pd(100) thin film via pulse laser deposition (PLD) at room temperature is simulated by using kinetic Monte Carlo (KMC) method with realistic physical parameters. The effects of mass transport between interlayers, edge diffusion of adatoms along the islands and instantaneous deposition are considered in the simulation model. Emphasis is placed on revealing the details of multilayer Cu/Pd(100) thin film growth and estimating the Ehrlich--Schwoebel (ES) barrier. It is shown that the instantaneous deposition in the PLD growth gives rise to the layer-by-layer growth mode, persisting up to about 9 monolayers (ML) of Cu/Pd(100). The ES barriers of The heteroepitaxial growth of multilayer Cu/Pd（100） thin film via pulse laser deposition （PLD） at room temperature is simulated by using kinetic Monte Carlo （KMC） method with realistic physical parameters. The effects of mass transport between interlayers, edge diffusion of adatoms along the islands and instantaneous deposition are considered in the simulation model, Emphasis is placed on revealing the details of multilayer Cu/Pd（100） thin film growth and estimating the Ehrlich-Schwoebel （ES） barrier. It is shown that the instantaneous deposition in the PLD growth gives rise to the layer-by-layer growth mode, persisting up to about 9 monolayers （ML） of Cu/Pd（100）. The ES barriers of 0.08 ± 0.01 eV is estimated by comparing the KMC simulation results with the real scanning tunnelling microscopy （STM） measurements,     

Non-monotonous dependence of surface roughness on factors influencing energy of adatoms during thin island film growth

Many experimental results show that surface roughness of thin films can increase, decrease, stay constant or pass through the minimum with the change in substrate temperature, energy of arriving atoms or assisted beam (electrons, photons, ions), depending on material and interval of variation of those parameters. The aim of this paper is to explain and analyze this non-monotonous behavior of surface roughness by proposed kinetic model. The model is based on rate equations and includes processes of surface diffusion of adatoms, nucleation, growth and coalescence of islands in the case of thin films growth in Volmer-Weber mode. It is shown by modeling that non-monotonous dependence of surface roughness on the factors influencing energy of adatoms (e.g. temperature, assisted beam irradiation, accelerating voltage) occurs as a result of interplay between diffusion length of adatoms and size of islands, because both parameters depend on energy of adatoms. Variation of island size and diffusion length results in atomic jumps from islands forming rougher or smoother surface. The functions of surface roughness, island size, island density on diffusion length of adatoms and on other parameters are calculated and analyzed in this work.     

Simulation of surfactant effects on the growth of metal homoexpitaxial Sb-Ag/Ag(111)

A kinetic Monte Carlo simulation is performed in order to study the effect of Sb atoms as a surfactant on the growth of Ag on Ag(111).In our model the repulsive mechanism in which the surfactant Sb atoms repel diffusing Ag adatoms,and the exchange mechanism between Ag and Sb atoms,are considered.Our simulations show that the effects of Sb atoms for Ag/Ag(111) growth system are mainly to increase the chances for Ag atoms to overcome the Ehrlich-Schwoebel barrier both in the interlayer growth and along the edge diffusion.The influence of the coverage of Sb atoms and substrate temperature on the growth of Ag/Sb/Ag(111) is discussed.     

Simulation of surfactant effect on growth of metal homoexpitaxial Sb－Ag/Ag(111)

A kinetic Monte Carlo simulation is performed in order to study the effect of Sb atoms as a surfactant on the growth of Ag on Ag(111). In our model the repulsive mechanism in which the surfactant Sb atoms repel diffusing Ag adatoms, and the exchange mechanism between Ag and Sb atoms, are considered. Our simulations show that the effects of Sb atoms for Ag/Ag(111) growth system are mainly to increase the chances for Ag atoms to overcome the Ehrlich--Schwoebel barrier both in the interlayer growth and along the edge diffusion. The influence of the coverage of Sb atoms and substrate temperature on the growth of Ag/Sb/Ag(111) is discussed.     

非均匀基底上三维薄膜生长的模拟研究

考虑原子在基底表面的扩散、沿岛周界的扩散和不同层间的扩散以及非均匀基底上表面吸附能分布的各向异性，建立起非均匀基底表面上原子扩散和三维薄膜生长的动力学蒙特卡罗模型.模拟得到在不同生长条件下出现的层状生长、岛状生长和混合生长三种生长模式和相应的多层薄膜生长形貌图.通过统计三维薄膜中原子在各层的分布，计算薄膜的表面粗糙度，得到薄膜生长模式与生长条件之间的关系. 关键词： 薄膜生长 非均匀基底 动力学蒙特卡罗模拟     

Stress dependence of growth mode change of epitaxial layered cobaltite γ-Na0.7CoO2

We report stress dependence of growth characteristics of epitaxial γ-Na_0.7CoO₂ films on various substrates deposited by pulsed laser deposition method. On the sapphire substrate, the γ-Na_0.7CoO₂ thin film exhibits spiral surface growth with multi-terraces and highly crystallized texture. For the γ-Na_0.7CoO₂ thin film grown on the (1 1 1) SrTiO₃ substrate, the nano-islands of ∼30 nm diameter on the hexagonal grains are observed. These islands indicate that the growth mode changes from step-flow growth mode to Stranski-Krastanow (SK) growth mode. On the (1 1 1) MgO substrate, the large grains formed by excess adatoms covering an aperture between hexagonal grains are observed. These experimental demonstrations and controllability could provide opportunities of strain effects of Na_xCoO₂, physical properties of thin films, and growth dynamics of heterogeneous epitaxial thin films.     

扩散理论对RLA模型中交换作用的研究

以扩散理论为基础，建立以“基本微观过程” 为核心的新模型，引入交换比的概念，对存在表面活化剂时薄膜生长的微观过程进行Kinetic Monte Carlo模拟.模拟发现，活化层原子和沉积原子都会发生跨层间的扩散，跨层扩散主要是单个原子的扩散，层间扩散的原子数目随着温度的升高或沉积厚度的增加而增多.RLA模型中的“交换作用”只是若干个“基本微观过程”的组合，大多数交换不是位置的“完全交换”，交换比也并非恒为1.     

沉积粒子能量对薄膜早期生长过程的影响

利用Monte Carlo(MC)模型研究了能量粒子对薄膜生长的初始阶段岛膜的形貌和岛的尺寸的影响,沉积粒子的能量范围为:0—0.7eV.在模型中考虑了原子沉积、吸附原子扩散和蒸发等过程,并详细考虑了临近和次临近原子的影响.结果表明,在所采用的参量范围内不同的基底温度情况下,能量粒子的影响有很大的区别.低基底温度情况下,沉积粒子强烈地影响着薄膜的生长过程中,岛膜的形貌、数量和尺寸随能量粒子的能量增加而有很大的变化.分析表明,这些变化都是由于能量粒子的介入使得表面吸附粒子的扩散能力增强所致 关键词： 薄膜生长 Monte Carlo方法 扩散     

扩散理论对RLA模型中交换作用的研究

以扩散理论为基础,建立以“基本微观过程” 为核心的新模型,引入交换比的概念,对存在表面活化剂时薄膜生长的微观过程进行Kinetic Monte Carlo模拟.模拟发现,活化层原子和沉积原子都会发生跨层间的扩散,跨层扩散主要是单个原子的扩散,层间扩散的原子数目随着温度的升高或沉积厚度的增加而增多.RLA模型中的“交换作用”只是若干个“基本微观过程”的组合,大多数交换不是位置的“完全交换”,交换比也并非恒为1. 关键词： 扩散理论 薄膜生长 交换作用 RLA     

Chemisorption of a monolayer of atoms on a bcc metal surface

The change in the density of states due to the adsorption of a monolayer of atoms on the (001) surface of a bcc metal is presented. The substrate is described by the Linear Combination of Atomic Orbitals (LCAO) scheme and the Tight-Binding (TB) approximation, and both the Green's function formalism and the phase shift technique are employed. Each adatom is represented by a single nondegenerate energy level. Two binding sites for the commensurate monolayer are considered: the on-site and the centered fourfold-site. By assuming that screening of the charges on the adatoms is complete within the surface layer of atoms, the selfconsistency condition of satisfying Friedel's sum rule can be met by varying the orbital energies of the adatoms and the surface plane of atoms of the substrate. The changes in the density of states show strongly skewed bonding and antibonding resonances which occur at different energies for the two binding sites even though equal binding strengths are assumed. A comparison with previous single adatom results shows that the shape and position of the bonding resonance are dependent upon adatom coverage.     

Kinetic Monte Carlo simulation of thin film growth

A three-dimensional kinetic Monte Carlo technique has been developed for simulating growth of thin Cu films. The model involves incident atom attachment, diffusion of the atoms on the growing surface, and detachment of the atoms from the growing surface. The related effect by surface atom diffusion was taken into account. A great improvement was made on calculation of the activation energy for atom diffusion based on a reasonable assumtion of interaction potential between atoms. The surface roughness and the relative density of the films were simulated as the functions of growth substrate temperature and film thickness. The results showed that there exists an optimum growth temperatureT _opt at a given deposition rate. When the substrate temperature approaches toT _opt, the growing surface becomes smoothing and the relative density of the films increases. The surface roughness minimizes and the relative density saturates atT _opt. The surface roughness increases with an increment of substrate, temperature when the temperature is higher thanT _opt.T _opt is a function of the deposition rate and the influence of the deposition rate on the surface roughness depends on the substrate temperatures. The simulation results also showed that the relative density decreases with the increasing of the deposition rate and the average thickness of the film.     

离子束辅助沉积对类金刚石膜结构影响的计算机模拟

采用分子动力学(MD)模拟研究了离子束辅助沉积(1BAD)生长类金刚石(DLC)膜的物理过程.分 别选C₂分子和Ar离子作为沉积源和辅助沉积粒子.改变Ar的入射能量和到达比(A r／C)，研 究了它对DLC膜结构的影响.重点讨论了Ar辅助沉积引起表面原子的瞬间活性变化对薄膜结构 产生的影响.分析表明，由于Ar离子的轰击引起的能量和动量的传递，大大地增强了C原子在 表面的反冲动能及迁移概率，增加了合成薄膜的SP³键含量.研究结果和实验 观察一致，并从合成机理上给出了一些定量解释. 关键词： 类金刚石膜 离子束辅助沉积 分子动力学模拟     

Atomic-level investigation of Al and Ni thin film growth on Ni(1 1 1) surface: Molecular dynamics simulation

Using molecular dynamics (MD) simulation, the structural characteristics of Al and Ni thin film growth on Ni(1 1 1) substrate according to the incident energy of adatoms were investigated. In case of Al on Ni(1 1 1), Al adatoms were grown basically through the layer-by-layer growth mode. On the other hand, Ni thin films on Ni(1 1 1) surface at low incident energy were shown to favor island growth. The steering effect due to atomic attraction, which results in rougher surface, was significantly observed at low incident energy. The growth mode of Ni film was, however, changed to follow layer-by-layer growth mode for the incident energy of 6 eV. The different aspects of surface morphology between Al and Ni deposition on Ni(1 1 1) surface could be successfully explained by the surface diffusion and impact cascade diffusion.     

Revision of single atom local density and capture number varying with coverage in uniform depletion approximation and its effect on coalescence and number of stable clusters

In vapour deposition,single atoms (adatoms) on the substrate surface are the main source of growth.The change in its density plays a decisive role in the growth of thin films and quantum size islands.In the nucleation and cluster coalescence stages of vapour deposition,the growth of stable clusters occurs on the substrate surface covered by stable clusters.Nucleation occurs in the non-covered part,while the total area covered by stable clusters on the substrate surface will gradually increase.Carefully taking into account the coverage effect,a revised single atom density rate equation is given for the famous and widely used thin-film rate equation theory,but the work of solving the revised equation has not been done.In this paper,we solve the equation and obtain the single-atom density and capture number by using a uniform depletion approximation.We determine that the single atom density is much lower than that evaluated from the single atom density rate equation in the traditional rate equation theory when the stable cluster coverage fraction is large,and it goes down very fast with an increase in the coverage fraction.The revised equation gives a higher value for the ’average’ capture number than the present equation.It also increases with increasing coverage.That makes the preparation of single crystalline thin film materials difficult and the size control of quantum size islands complicated.We also discuss the effect of the revision on coalescence and the number of stable clusters in vapour deposition.     

Growth of Sn(O,S)2 buffer layers and its application to Cu(In,Ga)Se2 solar cells

Sn-based thin films as new buffer layer for Cd-free Cu(In,Ga)Se₂ (CIGS) solar cells were developed. The Sn(O,S)₂ films were formed on CIGS substrates by chemical bath deposition from an alkaline ammonia solution by reacting tin(IV) chloride with thiourea. Optimization of the growth process allowed the smooth and conformal coverage of the films on the CIGS substrates with a thickness of 20 nm that was a self-limited thickness in the chemical bath deposition process. XPS analysis revealed that the as-deposited films contained Sn–O, Sn–OH, and Sn–S bondings and the ratio of Sn–S bonding to Sn–O bonding was 0.3. The CIGS solar cell fabricated with a 20-nm thick Sn(O,S)₂ buffer layer had the best efficiency of 11.5% without AR coating. The open circuit voltage, short circuit current, and fill factor were 0.55 V, 34.4 mA/cm², and FF = 0.61, respectively. The open circuit voltage and fill factor were low compared to the conventional CIGS solar cell with a 50-nm thick CdS buffer due to too thin Sn(O,S)₂ buffer layer.     

Effect of Incident Intensity on Films Growth in Pulsed Laser Deposition

Incident intensity, defined by the amount of particles deposited per pulse, is an important parameter in the film growth process of pulsed laser deposition （PLD）. Different from previous models, we investigate the irreversible and reversible growth processes by using a kinetic Monte Carlo method and find that island density and film morphology strongly depend on pulse intensity. At higher pulse intensities, lots of adatoms instantaneously diffuse on the substrate surface, and then nucleation easily occurs between the moving adatoms resulting in more smaller-size islands. In contrast, at the lower pulse intensities, nucleation event occurs preferentially between the single adatom and existing islands rather than forming new islands, and therefore the average island size becomes larger in this case. Additionally, our results show that substrate temperature plays an important role in film growth. In particular, it can determine the films shape and weaken the effect of pulse intensity on film growth at the lower temperatures by controlling the mobility rate of atoms. Our results can match the related theoretical and experimental results.     

Surface morphology for ion-beam sputtered Al layer with varying sputtering conditions

We study the growth morphology of thin macrostructure films which is known to be largely affected by the deposition conditions as thin film nucleation and formation is dependent on the kinetic energy and chemical free energy of the atoms. The ion-beam sputtering technique used for depositing thin layers is due to the advantage over other techniques, e.g. the independent control of many process parameters, such as the pressure and/or the energy of the ion-beam and the substrate temperature. Therefore, the dependence of various sputtering parameters such as: (i) sputtering pressure and/or the rate of deposition and (ii) the effect of substrate temperature on the growth has been studied by depositing a single layer of Al. The variations show some interesting dependencies on the structural parameters for the Al layer deposited which has been understood in terms of thin film growth and nucleation theory.     

MOLECULAR DYNAMICS SIMULATION OF ENERGETIC ATOM DEPOSITIONS OF Au/Au(100) FILM

The energetic atom deposition of thin Au/Au(100) film has been studied by molecular dynamics simulation using the Au-Au interatomic interaction potential with embedded atom method. By investigating the variation of coverage curves and Bragg diffraction intensities during the film growth, the transition of Stranski-Kranstanov growth mode to Frank-van der Merwe growth mode was observed with the increase of the incident energy of deposition atoms. The role of energetic atoms in the film growth is discussed by analyzing the transport properties of deposited atoms and the evolution of incident energy and substrate temperatures.