Thin film deposition onto the rough surface: phenomenological investigations

The early stages of thin film formation are analyzed by the proposed phenomenological model. The model includes the elementary processes taking place on the surfaces during physical vapor deposition such as adsorption, adatom surface diffusion, coalescence and surface migration of new phase clusters. Introducing into the model the surface potential depending sticking coefficients the model allow to investigate different modes of film grows. The kinetics of the three main characteristics: surface coverage, island density and average island size are analyzed. From the theoretical investigation it is found that the shape of the kinetic curves qualitatively differ for 2D and 3D island growth mode. The theoretical curves are compared with experimental results and a good agreement is obtained considering kinetics of the systems of Ag, Cu and Fe deposition on amorphous carbon. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.