Abstract
The morphologies at the initial stages of thin film growth were studied by using Kinetic Monte Carlo techniques. A more efficient model was used to calculate the activity energy. The model involves incident atom attachment, diffusion, detachment from the surface, detached atom returning, and dimer diffusion. We edited a set of software of the model and simulated the surface morphologies by the principle of computer graphics. It is shown that the nucleuses formed at the initial stages and the surface morphologies at high temperatures are very different from those at low temperatures. The later surface growth depends on the nucleuses at the initial stages. The mechanism results from the atom thermal movement, the temperature determines the diffusion ability, and the deposition rate determines the diffusion time.
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Supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 10574059), the Natural Science Foundation of Gansu Province (Grant No. 3ZSO42-B25-033), the Postdoctoral Foundation of Lanzhou University and Qinglan Talent Engineering Funds of Lanzhou Jiaotong University
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Zheng, X., Zhang, P., He, D. et al. Kinetic Monte Carlo simulation of film morphologies at the initial stages. Sci. China Ser. G-Phys. Mech. Astron. 51, 56–63 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11433-007-0011-4
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11433-007-0011-4