A Moledular Dynamics Simulation Study Of Effects Of Temperature On Epitaxial Growth In Cu-Ni Thin Flim

The property of the thin film depends on its structure which dominated by the deposition process. However, means of experiment and analysis in terms of space and time resolution can not fulfill the study of microscopic processes at the atomic scale. And computer simulation based on molecular dynamics provides a very effective means for the study of thin film growth. In this paper, the three-dimensional molecular dynamics simulation is used to study the deposition process of the thin epitaxial film of Cu/Ni (111) and Ni/Cu (111), the SC-EAM many-body potential function is used to calculate the interatomic forces. This work focus on the effects of growth temperature on film growth model, structure of film and diffusion of interface between film. Conclusions are as follows:(1) With the growth temperature rising among 300 K to 700 K, the surface morphology of Cu/Ni film and Ni/Cu film changes from the rough islands to smooth layer structure. The growth model changes from island growth to layer-by-layer. And the interface inter-diffusion increased in intensity.(2) The surface of Ni/Cu film is rougher than that of Cu/Ni film. The surface of Ni/Cu film becomes smooth above the temperature of 700 K, while 500 K of Cu/Ni film. The structure of the Ni/Cu film is more porous than that of the Cu/Ni film. The atomic stacking is compact only above the temperature of 700 K in Ni/Cu film, while that of 300 K in Cu/Ni film. The interface inter-diffusion of Ni/Cu film is more strong than that of Cu/Ni film. At the high temperature of 700 K, only a small amount of inter-diffusion appears at the interface of Cu/Ni film.