Sprague J., Montalenti F., Voter A.F.
Naval Research Laboratory, US
Keywords: copper, molecular dynamics, silver, surface diffusion, thin films
The initial stages of growth of (001) Cu films on (001) Ag substrates have been investigated using the temperature accelerated dynamics (TAD) method. The acceleration provided by this method made it possible to simulate the deposition of Cu on (001) Ag at 77 K using a deposition rate of 0.04 ML/s, which matched previously reported experiments of Egelhoff and Jacob. These simulations were achieved without a priori knowledge of the significant atomic processes. The present TAD simulation results showed that the increased lattice parameter in the film plane of the pseudomorphic Cu reduces the activation energy for the exchange mode of surface diffusion, allowing the formation of compact Cu islands at 77 K. Furthermore, the TAD simulation showed that the in-plane lattice expansion promoted some complex surface diffusion processes.
Journal: TechConnect Briefs
Volume: 2, Technical Proceedings of the 2002 International Conference on Computational Nanoscience and Nanotechnology
Published: April 22, 2002
Pages: 152 - 155
Industry sector: Advanced Materials & Manufacturing
Topic: Informatics, Modeling & Simulation
ISBN: 0-9708275-6-3