Modeling of silica sol–gel thin films with ballistic aggregation

An algorithm based on ballistic aggregation is proposed for modeling of atomic structure of sol–gel thin films. In the model, growth of structures changes smoothly from three-dimensional to two-dimensional as a limiting parameter starts to influence the results. Thus, this algorithm enables modeling of flat structures such as, practically important, thin films of various glass-like materials. Various sets of aggregation parameters are investigated and limitations of the model are determined.