Modelling of Phase Structure and Surface Morphology Evolution during Compound Thin Film Deposition

Abstract

The dependences of the surface roughness and the phase structure of compound thin films on substrate temperature and flux of incoming particles are investigated by a proposed mathematical model. The model, which describes physically deposited thin compound film growth process is based on the Cahn–Hilliard equation and includes processes of phase separation, adsorption, and diffusion. In order to analyze large temperature range and assuming deposition of energetic particles, the diffusion is discriminated into thermal diffusion, radiation-enhanced diffusion, and ion beam mixing. The model is adapted to analyze surface roughness evolution during film growth. The influences of the substrate temperature and incoming flux particles on the surface roughness are determined by a series of numerical experiments. The modelling results showed that the surface roughness increased as the substrate temperature rose. Besides, a similar relationship was discovered between substrate temperature and size of nanoparticles formed in binary films, so the increase in the surface roughness with the substrate temperature was attributed to the increase in size of nanoparticles.

Investigation of Morphology of Aluminum Co-Doped Scandium Stabilized Zirconia (ScAlSZ) Thin Films

“…≤ 1 was always satisfied at any grid cell. The previously published model [43] was used to simulate the growth of thin films. The processes of phase separation, diffusion of both thin components due to surface curvature, and adsorption were included in the model.…”

“…There have been several recent works dealing with the simulation of the growth of nanostructured thin films [35][36][37][38][39][40][41][42][43]. The influence of deposition rate and substrate temperature on the phase structure of the Cu-Mo films was examined using the approaches based on the phase-field models by Derby et al [35] and Ankit et al [36].…”

“…Our previous work [42] examined the influence of substrate temperature and relative incoming ion flux on the phase structure and surface roughness of grown films. A model based on the phase-field approach was used in [43]. The modeling results [43] showed that both substrate temperature and incoming ion flux influenced the surface roughness of grown film and the average nanoparticle size.…”

“…A model based on the phase-field approach was used in [43]. The modeling results [43] showed that both substrate temperature and incoming ion flux influenced the surface roughness of grown film and the average nanoparticle size.…”

Compositionally-Driven Formation Mechanism of Hierarchical Morphologies in Co-Deposited Immiscible Alloy Thin Films

“…These concentration modulations are classified as monomodal, maintaining a consistent microstructure morphology throughout the film. Several mesoscale models employed classical thin-film growth theory [3][4][5][6][7][8] to elucidate and understand the relevant kinetic and thermodynamics pathways [9][10][11][12][13], leading to the formation of such monomodal concentration modulation. Recent experimental results present a fourth class of concentration modulation with regions self-organizing into hierarchical microstructures [11,14,15].…”