Coverage Dependence of Growth Mode in Heteroepitaxy of Ni on Cu（100） Surface

• Published in: Communications in theoretical physics 2008, Vol.50 (7), p.231-236
• Main Author: WU Feng-Min LU Hang-Jun FANG Yun-Zhang HUANG Shi-Hua
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: 临界条件; 异质外延法; 生长模型
• ISSN: 0253-6102

A realistic kinetic Monte Carlo （KMC） simulation model with physical parameters is developed, which well reproduces the heteroepitaxial growth of multilayered Ni thin film on Cu（100） surfaces at room temperature. The effects of mass transport between interlayers and edge diffusion of atoms along the islands are included in the simulation model, and the surface roughness and the layer distribution versus total coverage are calculated. Speeially, the simulation model reveals the transition of growth mode with coverage and the difference between the Ni heteroepitaxy on Cu（100） and the Ni homoepitaxy on Ni（100）. Through comparison of KMC simulation with the real scanning tunneling microscopy （STM） experiments, the Ehrlich-Schwoebel （ES） barrier Ees is estimated to be 0.18±0.02 eV for Ni/Cu（100） system while 0.28 eV for Ni/Ni（100）. The simulation also shows that the growth mode depends strongly on the thickness of thin film and the surface temperature, and the critical thickness of growth mode transition is dependent on the growth condition such as surface temperature and deposition flux as well.