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Interfacial mixing in heteroepitaxial growth

Boris Bierwald·Michael von den Driesch·Zeno Farkas·Sang Bub Lee·Dietrich E. Wolf
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Abstract

We investigate the growth of a film of some element B on a substrate made of another substrance A in a model of molecular beam epitaxy. A vertical exchange mechanism allows the A-atoms to stay on the growing surface with a certain probability. Using kinetic Monte Carlo simulations as well as scaling arguments, the incorporation of the A's into the growing B-layer is investigated. Moreover we develop a rate equation theory for this process. In the limit of perfect layer-by-layer growth, the density of A-atoms decays in the B-film like the inverse squared distance from the interface. The power law is cut off exponentially at a characteristic thickness of the interdiffusion zone that depends on the rate of exchange of a B-adatom with an A-atom in the surface and on the system size. Kinetic roughening changes the exponents. Then the thickness of the interdiffusion zone is determined by the diffusion length.

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Boris Bierwald, Michael von den Driesch, Zeno Farkas, Sang Bub Lee, Dietrich E. Wolf. 2003-06-03. Interfacial mixing in heteroepitaxial growth. https://doi.org/10.1103/physreve.70.021604

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