Journal of Crystal Growth 91 (1988) 481—489 481 North-Holland, Amsterdam MONTE CARLO SIMULATION OF THE GROWTH OF A Cu(lOO) SURFACE FROM JTS OWN VAPOR; ISLAND NUCLEATION AND STEP PROPAGATION GROWTH MODES J.J. DE MIGUEL, J. FERRON, A. CEBOLLADA, J.M. GALLEGO and S. FERRER Dp~o. de Fisica de Ia Materia Condensada, C-3, Facultad de Ciencias, Universidad Autbnoma de Madrid~Cantoblanco, 28049 Madrid, Spain Received 15 January 1988; manuscript received in final form 19 May 1988 The temporal oscillations in the specularly scattered intensity of thermal energy helium scattering experiments while a Cu(100) surface is growing from its vapor have been reproduced by Monte Carlo simulations involving only parameters directly obtained from experiments for a variety of surface temperatures. The results allow us to gain insight into the different growth modes of the film (three-dimensional, formation of two-dimensional islands on the substrate terraces and step propagation) and on the temporal variations that they cause in the scattered intensity. 1. Introduction perfection of the growing film could be extracted from the experiments and the surface diffusion Epitaxial films grown by vapor deposition con- coefficient could be estimated [3,4]. In order to stitute an important topic in semiconductor tech- gain additional insight in the growth process, a nology and in basic research. One of the most Monte Carlo simulation of the growing film has utilized techniques to monitor the growth process been performed and this is the main topic of the is RHEED (reflection high-energy electron dif- present paper. Our goal was to reproduce in an fraction) since the intensities of the diffracted accurate way, while keeping computational sim- beams may exhibit temporal oscillations while the plicity, the experimental data obtained from TEAS film is growing with a periodicity corresponding on the growth of a Cu(100) surface from its vapor to the growth of one atomic layer [1]. This tech- for a series of surface temperatures. The result is nique has been widely utilized to control, at atomic encouraging since good agreement between experi- level, the thickness of epitaxial films. However, to mental data and Monte Carlo simulation has been extract from the RHEED data additional informa- obtained with the additional interest that no ad- tion concerning the morphological perfection of justable parameters have been employed in the the film has revealed to be a difficult task due to simulation since it has been based on the experi- the dynamical nature of the scattering process. mental information extracted from TEAS. The In a previous paper [2], the growth of a single paper is organized as follows. In section 2, the crystalline metallic surface was investigated by details of the Monte Carlo simulation are given. TEAS (thermal energy atom scattering) and as in Section 3.1 shows the TEAS experimental data RHEED, temporal oscillations with one monolayer and briefly discusses them. Section 3.2 shows the periodicity were observed. As TEAS is a purely result of the Monte Carlo simulation which was kinematical technique, the analysis of the experi- found to be the most satisfactory in reproducing mental data to extract morphological characteris- the experiments. Section 4 describes the different tics of the growing film is relatively straightfor- growth modes of the epitaxial film and its rela- ward. As a result, quantitative information on the tionship with the measured scattered intensities. 0022-0248/88/$03.50 © Elsevier Science Publishers B.V. (North-Holland Physics Publishing Division)