Quantitative assessment of molecular dynamics-grown amorphous silicon and germanium films on silicon (111)

P Kashammer and NI Borgardt and M Seibt and T Sinno, SURFACE SCIENCE, 651, 100-104 (2016).

DOI: 10.1016/j.susc.2016.04.002

Molecular dynamics based on the empirical Tersoff potential was used to simulate the deposition of amorphous silicon and germanium on silicon(111) at various deposition rates and temperatures. The resulting films were analyzed quantitatively by comparing one-dimensional atomic density profiles to experimental measurements. It is found that the simulations are able to capture well the structural features of the deposited films, which exhibit a gradual loss of crystalline order over several monolayers. A simple mechanistic model is used to demonstrate that the simulation temperature may be used to effectively accelerate the surface relaxation processes during deposition, leading to films that are consistent with experimental samples grown at deposition rates many orders of-magnitude slower than possible in a molecular dynamics simulation. (C) 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Return to Publications page