Molecular Dynamics Study on the Role of Ar Ions in the Sputter Deposition of Al Thin Films

Molecular dynamics simulations are often used to study sputtering and thin film growth. Compressive stresses in these thin films are generally assumed to be caused by a combination of forward sputtered (peened) built-in particles and entrapped working gas atoms. While the former are assumed to hold a predominant role, the effect of the latter on the interaction dynamics as well as thin film properties are scarcely clarified (concurrent or causative). The inherent overlay of the ion bombardment induced processes render an isolation of their contribution impracticable. In this work, this issue is addressed by comparing the results of two case studies on the sputter deposition of Al thin films in Ar working gas. In the first run Ar atoms are fully retained. In the second run they are artificially neglected, as implanted Ar atoms are assumed to outgas anyhow and not alter the ongoing dynamics significantly. Both case studies have in common that the consecutive impingement of 100 particles (i.e., Ar\(^+\) ions, Al atoms) onto Al(001) surfaces for ion energies in the range of 3 eV to 300 eV as well as Al/Ar\(^+\) flux ratios from 0 to 1 are considered. The surface interactions are simulated by means of hybrid reactive molecular dynamics/force-biased Monte Carlo simulations and characterized in terms of mass density, Ar concentration, biaxial stress, shear stress, ring statistical connectivity profile, Ar gas porosity, Al vacancy density, and root-mean-squared roughness. Ultimately, implanted Ar atoms are found to form subnanometer sized eventually outgassing clusters for ion energies exceeding 100 eV. They fundamentally govern a variety of surface processes (e.g., forward sputtering/peening) and surface properties (e.g., compressive stresses) in the considered operating regime.