Surface Structure and Void Formation in Thin Film Growth: A Monte Carlo Simulation

The structure of thin film deposited on metal surfaces and void formation in the film have been studied with use of a Monte Carlo method. We extended the solid-on-solid model so that vacancies are created during the growth of the film and performed simulations for a two-dimensional square lattice model. It is shown that the spatial distribution of vacancies is closely related to the surface structure and voids are created as small holes are filled with deposited atoms.