Effect of incident angle on thin film growth: A molecular dynamics simulation study

In current work we perform molecular dynamics simulations to investigate the growth of Al thin film on Cu substrate through physical vapor deposition. The effects of incident angle on the morphology and the formed internal microstructures of Al thin films are emphasized. Simulation results show that Al thin films grow in the epitaxy growth mode of layer-by-layer fashion under incident energy of 0.1 eV. Further analysis of the internal microstructures demonstrates the formation of twin boundaries in Al thin films. It is found that the morphology of the island-like clusters formed in Al thin films varies significantly upon incident angle. The compositions of atoms of different lattice structures strongly depend on incident angle, which consequently affects the propensity of different internal microstructures formed in Al thin films. (C) 2013 Elsevier B. V. All rights reserved.