Nowadays, research in the field of nanoscale thin film growth is exceptionally active as new emerging fields related to plasmonics or energy-harvesting applications rely on a 3D integration of nanoscale layers into complex architectures for the next generation of electronic devices. It is well established that there is a complex dependence of the film microstructure and the resulting properties on the deposition conditions (i.e. the kinetic energy of the deposited particles, substrate temperature) and on the chemical interaction with the substrate (surface reactivity, adatom mobility, intermixing).
In this field, vapor-based deposition of homo epitaxial coppers thin film has shown that the growing interface morphology, roughness and its time evolution are depending on the growth conditions as substrate temperature, deposition rate, deposition angle and incident particles' energy.
Varying the deposition temperature between 150K and 450K, the interface roughness shows a maximum at a temperature depending on the deposition rate - “reentrant smooth growth” [1]. Islands in the beginning, becoming pyramidal structures at long time deposition, have more or less square bases with ledges orientated along <110> directions; the pyramid face slopes depend on the growth conditions |2]. Under GLAD conditions, the characteristic pyramidal mounds developed at normal incidence, become elongated pyramids leading to the ripple’s formation at long time deposition. The orientation of these elongated pyramids (ripples later) in respect with the incidence plane is depending on the surface temperature and deposition angle [3].
To understand these experimental findings, a rigid lattice 3D-kMC model has been developed, the anisotropy of Cu surface diffusion being considered. The funnelling [4], and steering [5], effects are considered during the deposition event. The angular and energy distributions of the incoming particles are included as well into the model. Atomistic mechanisms relevant to growth under energetic deposition conditions, such as re-sputtering, directionally-induced surface diffusion and bulk defect creation, have been explicitly considered. When necessary, an Ehrlich-Schwoebel barrier is considered as well.
Our model, using similar growth conditions (room temperature and deposition rate of 0.2ML/s), reproduces both, qualitative and quantitative, the island density and surface roughness and morphology experimental results. For the reentrant smooth growth, simulations have been done at temperatures varying from 150K to 450K and deposition rates from 0.1ML/s to 100ML/s. Comparing simulation results with the experimental ones, a good qualitative and quantitative agreement is obtained as well. Under GLAD conditions, ripples formation and their orientation dependency in respect with the incident plane as a function of substrate temperature and polar deposition angle is also well reproduced by our proposed model.

References
[1] Botez CE et al. Temperature dependence of surface roughening during homoepitaxial growth on Cu(001). Phys. Rev. B 2001;64:125427(6)
[2] Jorritsma LC et al. Growth Anisotropy and Pattern Formation in Metal Epitaxy. Phys. Rev. Lett. 1996;78(5):911-914
[3] Rabbering FLW et al. Oblique incidence deposition of Cu/Cu(001): Enhanced roughness and ripple formation. Phys. Rev. B 2010;81:115425(11)
[4] Evans JW. Random-deposition models for thin-film epitaxial growth. Phys. Rev. B 1989;39:5655(10)
[5] Van Dijken S et al. Phys. Rev. Lett. 1999;82(20):4038-4041

Acknowledgments: This work has been done in the framework of the INTEGRAL project (INTerface reactivity, microstructure and stress Evolution during thin film GRowth: multi-scALe modelling and experimental validation (INTEGRAL)” - Reference ANR: # ANR-19-CE08-0024-01