Modulating Effect of Evanscent Waves on Thin Film Growth

TL;DR

This paper introduces a novel method using evanescent waves to promote layer-by-layer growth in thin films, overcoming intrinsic island-like growth modes for smoother, high-quality multilayer devices.

Contribution

It proposes a negative entropy-infusing technique employing evanescent waves to enhance adatom diffusion and achieve ultrasmooth thin films, supported by theoretical formulas and numerical simulations.

Findings

Enhanced surface morphology in simulations

Theoretical formulas for optical force and diffusion barrier

Potential for improved multilayer device fabrication

Abstract

Atomic-scale smooth thin films are keys to successful integration and proper function of many multilayer-structured devices. However, the intrinsic island-like growth mode prevents human being from realizing such ultrasmooth films of many important functional materials. To solve this problem, we propose a negative entropy-infusing method that employs evanescent waves to enhance the downward interlayer diffusion of adatoms and thus transform the island-like growth mode to the layer-by-layer growth mode. The formulas of the optical force and the lowered diffusion barrier were derived, and the application of this theory on a simplified example demonstrates significantly improved surface morphologies through numerical simulations.