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Chin. Phys. B, 2011, Vol. 20(8): 086803    DOI: 10.1088/1674-1056/20/8/086803
CONDENSED MATTER: STRUCTURAL, MECHANICAL, AND THERMAL PROPERTIES Prev   Next  

Revision of single atom local density and capture number varying with coverage in uniform depletion approximation and its effect on coalescence and number of stable clusters

Shao Qing-Yi(邵庆益)a)b)† and Zhang Juan (张娟)a)
a Laboratory of Quantum Information Technology, School of Physics and Telecommunication Engineering, South China Normal University, Guangzhou 510006, China; b Department of Physics, Zhangzhou Normal University, Zhangzhou 363000, Fujian Province, China
Abstract  In vapour deposition, single atoms (adatoms) on the substrate surface are the main source of growth. The change in its density plays a decisive role in the growth of thin films and quantum size islands. In the nucleation and cluster coalescence stages of vapour deposition, the growth of stable clusters occurs on the substrate surface covered by stable clusters. Nucleation occurs in the non-covered part, while the total area covered by stable clusters on the substrate surface will gradually increase. Carefully taking into account the coverage effect, a revised single atom density rate equation is given for the famous and widely used thin-film rate equation theory, but the work of solving the revised equation has not been done. In this paper, we solve the equation and obtain the single-atom density and capture number by using a uniform depletion approximation. We determine that the single atom density is much lower than that evaluated from the single atom density rate equation in the traditional rate equation theory when the stable cluster coverage fraction is large, and it goes down very fast with an increase in the coverage fraction. The revised equation gives a higher value for the 'average' capture number than the present equation. It also increases with increasing coverage. That makes the preparation of single crystalline thin film materials difficult and the size control of quantum size islands complicated. We also discuss the effect of the revision on coalescence and the number of stable clusters in vapour deposition.
Keywords:  single atom density      coverage      uniform depletion approximation      coalescence  
Received:  01 December 2009      Revised:  14 March 2011      Accepted manuscript online: 
PACS:  68.55.A- (Nucleation and growth)  
  68.43.Jk (Diffusion of adsorbates, kinetics of coarsening and aggregation)  
  81.15.Aa (Theory and models of film growth)  
  81.16.Rf (Micro- and nanoscale pattern formation)  
Fund: Project supported by the Natural Science Foundation of Fujian Province of China (Grant No. A0220001).

Cite this article: 

Shao Qing-Yi(邵庆益) and Zhang Juan (张娟) Revision of single atom local density and capture number varying with coverage in uniform depletion approximation and its effect on coalescence and number of stable clusters 2011 Chin. Phys. B 20 086803

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