Molecular dynamics simulation of the early stage of thin film deposition: Al and Co on Co(111)

The growth mechanisms of the early stage of thin film deposition were quantitatively investigated using molecular dynamics method, focused on the case of the Co, Al on fcc-Co(111) system. In the case of Al on Co(111), Al adatoms were grown by basically layer-by-layer growth mode. In the case of Co on Co(111), Co adatoms apparently favored island growth mode at the low incident energy. Increasing the energy, however, the tendency towards layer-by-layer growth mode was highly increased. These could be rationalized by the difference of surface diffusion barriers for each case.