Atomistic simulation of texture competition during thin film deposition

In this paper, we review the principles and the applications of an atomistic simulator for thin film deposition (ADEPT). which is a hybrid of classical molecular dynamics and lattice Monte Carlo methods, Molecular dynamics is used to study details of the atomic movement, whereas lattice Monte Carlo method is used to simulate the long time evolution of thin film deposition. In the first stage development of the ADEPT, a single lattice is used with all atoms placed on one lattice representing a single crystal. Later, the description is extended to two lattices to simulate the competition of two textures during deposition, the model being called Monte Carlo Poly. More recently, multiple lattices are incorporated in Monte Carlo Poly to treat the competition of all possible textures. At each stage, ADEPT was applied to simulate deposition of various thin films, with a focus on the electronic materials. The atomistic simulations, in particular those based on Monte Carlo Poly, provide insights to mechanisms of texture competition.