Film Growth Morphology and Segregation in Pulsed Laser Deposition

这笔赠款强调了脉冲激光沉积(PLD)薄膜生长、形貌和成分选择的基础研究。一个主要的目标是在相同的条件下对PLD生长和分子束外延(MBE)生长进行直接比较，以促进将MBE的广泛知识扩展和修改到PLD过程。初步实验将使用简单的面心立方和体心立方金属系统，特别是在Ag和Co，Fe，Rh，Pd和Pt上的Cu，Ni和Fe上。表征包括检测绝缘衬底上金属薄膜形成过程中的非润湿岛形核、生长、粗化和合并，以及同质外延生长过程中表面粗糙度的演变。除了对合金元素在表面的偏析及其埋藏和融入生长薄膜的实验研究外，建模工作还包括使用3D动力学蒙特卡罗程序进行模拟。该研究程序的设计使其结果将广泛适用于各种材料的各种非平衡加工技术。实验工作将允许制定广泛的原则，这些原则可以与涉及薄膜生长的研究企业相关。这项研究将有助于制造新的、有趣的、潜在有用的材料和组合。该项目支持培训两名研究生，为他们的专业发展做出贡献。

This grant emphasizes a fundamental study of thin film growth morphology and composition selection for Pulsed Laser Deposition (PLD). A major goal is to make a direct comparison between growth by PLD and by Molecular Beam Epitaxy (MBE) performed under identical conditions to facilitate the extension and modification of the extensive body of MBE knowledge to the PLD process. Initial experiments will be conducted using simple fcc and bcc metal systems, in particular Cu, Ni and Fe on Ag and Co, Fe, Rh, Pd and Pt on Cu. Characterization involves examination of non-wetting island nucleation, growth, coarsening and coalescence in the formation of thin metal films on insulating substrates, along with surface roughness evolution in homoepitaxial growth. Along with the experimental study of segregation of alloying elements at the surface and their burial and incorporation into the growing film, modeling efforts include simulations using 3-D Kinetic Monte Carlo code.This research program is designed so that its results will have broad applicability to a variety of nonequilibrium processing techniques for a wide variety of materials. The experimental effort will permit the formulation of broad principles that can be related to the research enterprise concerned with film growth. This research will facilitate the fabrication of new, interesting, and potentially useful and combinations of materials. The project supports the training of two graduate students contributing to their professional development.