"Modeling of the Growth of Self-assembled Thin Film with Pillar-in-matrix Configuration" 

Ahmad Ahmad, MSE PhD Candidate 

Advisor: Professor Anter El-Azab

WebEx Link | 641105180

Abstract:

The interesting physical and chemical properties of self-assembled oxide-metal thin films with pillar-in-matrix configurations, known as vertically aligned nanocomposite (VAN), have received a great deal of attention lately. The growth and morphology evolution processes of such films are so complicated that our current understanding of them is still limited. Current research has suggested that, on a thermodynamic basis, the ordering and evolution of the embedded phase configuration in the matrix can be described by in terms of the lattice-mismatch elastic strain and the interfacial energy. From a self-assembly point of view, however, adatom diffusion on the surface, binding energies, and elastic strain influence the clustering, nucleation, and growth of phases. The Kinetic Monte Carlo (KMC) method and the phase field framework capture these events at the atomic and mesoscopic (continuum) sales, respectively. From an experimental point of view, the growth of VAN systems can be affected by the physical and chemical parameters in the pulsed laser deposition technique. There are several reports in the literature describing how such parameters may be incorporated as boundary conditions into the KMC and phase field frameworks to predict the morphological evolution of VAN the systems. In this talk, I will review the use of KMC and phase field methods and how they can be utilized in simulating the growth of multiphase self-assembled nanostructure films.