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A model for thin film texture evolution driven by surface energy effects
Author(s) -
Knuyt G.,
Quaeyhaegens C.,
D'Haen J.,
Stals L. M.
Publication year - 1996
Publication title -
physica status solidi (b)
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.51
H-Index - 109
eISSN - 1521-3951
pISSN - 0370-1972
DOI - 10.1002/pssb.2221950121
Subject(s) - texture (cosmology) , sharpening , materials science , surface (topology) , surface energy , orientation (vector space) , surface finish , diffusion , condensed matter physics , distribution function , energy (signal processing) , surface diffusion , crystallography , geometry , physics , mathematics , composite material , chemistry , thermodynamics , image (mathematics) , computer science , artificial intelligence , statistics , organic chemistry , adsorption
A model was developed in order to calculate the texture evolution of a growing film with large atomic diffusion on the surface. The tendency for lowest surface energy was taken as the driving force for the evolution. The orientation dependent surface energy y was approximated by a function with a sharp minimum in two crystallographic directions. The texture evolution was calculated, starting from various initial situations. With realistic assumptions it was found that a texture without preferential orientations evolved to a bimodal texture, and finally to a situation with only lowest y planes parallel to the substrate. For some initial situations a texture turn over from one crystallographic direction to another one can be expected. In all cases a sharpening of the angular distribution of the texture is found near the directions of a local minimum for y. For sufficiently large times the mean top diameter of the columns always increases with layer thickness. The calculated effects describe well a number of experimentally observed phenomena.