Substrate induced enhancement of atomic layer growth on Al(1 1 1): The effect of the mass anisotropy

The evolution of the thin-film morphology is studied by molecular dynamics simulations and we find a strong tendency of adatom island growth on the (1 1 1) surface of a thin Al overlayer placed on a heavy substrate (Pt(1 1 1)) when the system is subjected to low-energy Xe+ irradiation. The large adatom yield of 102−103 is found for 5–10 keV rare gas ion impacts. We also find that the mass effect due to the small atomic mass ratio (large mass anisotropy) in the bilayer has a direct effect on the atomic layer growth on the surface. A mass anisotropy induced scattering of the light overlayer atoms from the heavy substrate contributes to the enhancement of adatom production. It has been found that the volume increase (density decrease) of the amorphous intermixed phase keeps the adatoms on the surface. The competition between cratering and atomic layer growth can also be seen: three events out of 10 leads to cratering (erosion) morphology at 6 keV ion energy. The substrate induced enhancement of atomic layer growth might be a promising tool for making arrays of nanodots as nanotemplates for nanofabrication.