Study on the early stage of thin film growth in pulsed beam deposition by kinetic Monte Carlo simulation

In this study a pulse beam (PB) deposition model based on a square lattice is proposed and is used to simulate the process of thin film growth with the kinetic Monte Carlo method. The influence of frequency and duration of pulse on the nucleation, aggregation, and morphology of thin film growth in the early stage is investigated and discussed. The simulation results show that the morphology, island-size distribution, and dynamics behavior of island growth in PB deposition are different from that in DC deposition when their average deposition rates are same. With the increase of transient deposition rate during the pulse activation, the island-size distribution and morphology lose the characteristics of the i = 1 model. Due to the high transient deposition rate during the pulse activation, PB deposition promotes nucleation and suppresses the growth of islands and increases the island density. The atomistic mechanism of thin film growth in pulse beam deposition is also discussed. © 2002 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.