Reaction rates for ionized physical vapor deposition modeling from molecular-dynamics calculations: Effect of surface roughness

We carefully analyze the surface adsorption, reflection, and etching reactions taking place during ionized physical vapor deposition using molecular-dynamics techniques and calculate their relative probabilities. We discuss in detail the angular and energetic distributions of hyperthermal Al atoms impinging on flat and stepped Al surfaces and investigate the influence of surface roughness on the rates obtained within our approach. On flat surfaces, we predict a preferred direction of emission for the sputtered particles, that depends on crystal structure and surface orientation. In addition, we compare for Al and Ti the total sputter yield and find a lower threshold energy for Ti in agreement with experimental observations. @S0163-1829~99!09143-2#