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Simulation of Three-Dimensional Strained Heteroepitaxial Growth Using Kinetic Monte Carlo

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 August 2015

Tim P. Schulze  and
Peter Smereka
Tim P. Schulze*
Affiliation:
Department of Mathematics, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN 37996, USA
Peter Smereka*
Affiliation:
Department of Mathematics, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI 48109, USA
*
Corresponding author.Email:schulze@math.utk.edu
Email:psmereka@umich.edu
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Abstract

Efficient algorithms for the simulation of strained heteroepitaxial growth with intermixing in 2+1 dimensions are presented. The first of these algorithms is an extension of the energy localization method [T. P. Schulze and P. Smereka, An energy localization principle and its application to fast kinetic Monte Carlo simulation of heteroepitaxial growth, J. Mech. Phys. Sol., 3 (2009), 521-538] from 1+1 to 2+1 dimensions. Two approximations of this basic algorithm are then introduced, one of which treats adatoms in a more efficient manner, while the other makes use of an approximation of the change in elastic energy in terms of local elastic energy density. In both cases, it is demonstrated that a reasonable level of fidelity is achieved. Results are presented showing how the film morphology is affected by misfit and deposition rate. In addition, simulations of stacked quantum dots are also presented.

Keywords

82B8082B2182D2565C05Heteroepitaxystrained thin filmkinetic Monte Carlo

Information

Type
Research Article
Information
Communications in Computational Physics , Volume 10 , Issue 5 , November 2011 , pp. 1089 - 1112
Copyright
Copyright © Global Science Press Limited 2011

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