Atomistic Simulation of Stresses in Growing Silicon Dioxide Films

Abstract

Dependence of stress values in silicon dioxide films on its thickness in the initial stage of film growth was investigated using atomistic molecular dynamics simulation. It was shown that the stress in normally deposited films was compressive and varied slightly with growth of film thickness. The stress in the glancing angle deposited films was several times lower than the stress in the normally deposited films, and varied from compressive stress to tensile stress with increasing film thickness. An essential anisotropy of stress tensor components was revealed for the case of glancing angle deposition. The calculated stress values were in the interval of experimental data.