Using the Monte Carlo method, we have studied the pulsed laser deposition process at the submonolayer regime. In our simulations, dissociation of an atom from a cluster is incorporated. Our results indicate that the pulsed laser deposition resembles molecular-beam epitaxy at very low intensity, and that it is characteristically different from molecular-beam epitaxy at higher intensity. We have also obtained the island size distributions. The scaling function for the island size distribution for pulsed laser deposition is different from that of molecular-beam epitaxy.

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Surface processing is generally kinetics limited. Migration barriers, both on flat surfaces and near steps, therefore are of crucial importance. In this paper, we describe a kinetic barrier that separates two neighboring facets on surfaces. The contrast of this concept relative to the conventional Ehrlich-Schwoebel barrier is shown through molecular dynamics/statics calculations on copper and aluminum. The effects of this new kinetic barrier are demonstrated through lattice Monte Carlo simulations. The predicted effects are in direct correspondence with validation experiments on copper and silver thin films.