New cellular automaton designed to simulate epitaxial films growth

TL;DR

This paper introduces a simple 2+1D cellular automaton model for epitaxial film growth, analyzing how bond-breaking and diffusion influence surface roughness and morphology.

Contribution

A novel cellular automaton model for epitaxial growth that incorporates bond-breaking and surface diffusion, providing insights into surface roughness and anisotropy.

Findings

Surface roughness exponents vary with bond number z.

Growth exponents decrease as z increases.

Simulation snapshots illustrate morphological evolution.

Abstract

In this paper a simple (2+1) solid-on-solid model of the epitaxial films growth based on random deposition followed by breaking particle-particle lateral bonds and particles surface diffusion is introduced. The influence of the critical number of the particle-particle lateral bonds $z$ and the deposition rate on the surface roughness dynamics and possible surface morphology anisotropy is presented. The roughness exponent $\alpha$ and the growth exponent $\beta$ are $(0.863,0.357)$, $(0.215,0.123)$, $(0.101,0.0405)$ and $(0.0718,0.0228)$ for $z=1$, 2, 3 and 4, respectively. Snapshots from simulations of the growth process are included.