Surface diffusion of clusters and thin film growth

Abstract

An analogy between the behavior of real gases and the behavior of clusters deposited on a surface has been established. A relation similar to the Van der Waals equation was used, with the variables corresponding to the deposition process. It was found that the critical parameters and the Boyle temperature of the substrate define the conditions of a particular nucleation and of the thin film growth mode and the conditions when one growth mode converts to the other. It has been shown that the introduced analogy is in a good agreement with the recent experiments of nucleation and growth of thin films. The applicability of the proposed analogy to the epitaxial growth and surface sputtering has been discussed.