THE INFLUENCE OF THE SURFACE ORIENTATION ON THE MORPHOLOGY DURING HOMOEPITAXIAL GROWTH OF NICKEL BY MOLECULAR DYNAMICS SIMULATION

Homoepitaxial growth film for (001), (110) and (111) Ni substrates is investigated by means of molecular dynamics (MD) simulation. Embedded atom method (EAM) is considered to represent the interaction potential between nickel atoms. The simulation is performed at 300K using an incident energy of 0.06 eV. In this study, the deposition process is performed periodically and the period, n, is relative to a perfect layer filling. The coverage rate of the actual expected level, L-(n), can be considered a determinant for thin-film growth of nickel. The L-(n) level is the most filled level during the deposition on (001) substrate, while it is the less filled one in the case of (111) substrate. Moreover, the upper level is the one which is responsible for the surface roughness and the appearance time of an upper layer may also be a factor influencing the surface roughness. The deposition on (111) substrate induces the most rigorous surface with a rapid appearance time of the upper layers. The L(n-1) layers are almost completely filled for all substrates. The L(n-2) and lower layers are completely filled for (001) and (110) substrates while for (111) substrate the completely filled layers are L(n-3) and lower ones.