Surface growth by cluster particles: Effects of diffusion and cluster’s shape

Abstract

We use Monte Carlo simulation to study the spatiotemporal behavior of thin films generated by low kinetic energy cluster particles. To this end, two models are employed to investigate the effects of clusters’ shapes and their diffusion ability on the surface. In the first model, clusters are considered as a string of particles with unit height and non-unit length. The growth process in this model is implemented based on Random Deposition with Surface Relaxation (RDSR) model where particles can diffuse on the surface. The second model studies deposition of porous clusters with different shapes according to Random Deposition (RD) model. According to previous studies, the deposition of unit size particles based on RD model leads to a random growth. Using the RDSR model the phenomenon is observed to be under the Edward-Wilkinson universality class. Our results for both models reveal that using cluster particles with non-unit size gives rise to a porous medium which changes the universality class of models to Kardar-Parizi-Zhang (KPZ) by scaling exponents β=0.3 and α=0.5.