Monte Carlo simulation and study of thin film growth process

The effect of the substrate temperature and the rest energy of incident particles on the island morphology and size at the early stage of thin film growth are studied by Monte-Carlo simulation. In our model, three processes are considered: particle deposition, adatom diffusion and adatom reevaporation. The results show that, with temperature increasing from 200 K to 260 K, the island growth transits from sporadic to fractal shape, as the temperature is relatively low (200 K), with increasing rest energy of incident particles, the same evolution of island morphology is also observed. Further study shows that, with increasing temperature or increasing rest energy of incident particles, diffusivity of deposit particles is prominently improved, then island morphology is changed. (authors)