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arXiv · 2004.04853

Domain formation in the deposition of thin films of two-component mixtures

Tung B. T. To·Fábio D. A. Aarão Reis
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Abstract

We perform a kinetic Monte Carlo simulation study of a model of thin film deposition of a two-component mixture in which the activation energy for diffusion of an adatom is additive over its nearest neighbors and in which the interactions between adatoms of the same species are stronger than those between adatoms of different species. The film morphology is investigated for broad ranges of values of the ratios between terrace diffusivity and atomic flux, of the probabilities of detachment from lateral neighbors, and of probabilities of crossing terrace edges. First, we consider a symmetric case in which the interactions of adatoms of the same species are the same for the two components. For low and intermediate temperatures, we show the formation of narrow domains, whose widths are $3$-$30$ lattice constants, which meander in the layers parallel to the substrate, and are connected through very long distances. The domain width depends on the diffusivity-flux ratio of the same species, but it is weakly affected by interactions of different species, so rough estimates of that width can be obtained by using tabulated properties of films with a single component. At high temperatures, the separation of domains is enhanced, but their long distance connectivity is lost, which shows that the formation of the long meandering domains is restricted to a certain range of temperature and flux. Similar morphological features are obtained when the intra-species interactions are different and the adatom diffusion coefficients on terraces of the same species differ up to two orders of magnitude. An approximate scaling relation for the domain width is obtained, but the species with the largest mobility constrains the temperature range in which the long connected domains are found.

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Tung B. T. To, Fábio D. A. Aarão Reis. 2020-04-09. Domain formation in the deposition of thin films of two-component mixtures. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jallcom.2020.155093

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