New Mechanism of Thin Film Growth by Charged Clusters

The charged clusters or particles, which contain hundreds to thousands of atoms or even more, are suggested to form in the gas phase in the thin film processes such as CVD, thermal evaporation, laser ablation, and flame deposition. All of these processes are also used in the gas phase synthesis of the nanoparticles. Ion-induced or photo-induced nucleation is the main mechanism for the formation of these nanoclusters or nanoparticles inthe gas phase. Charged clusters can make a dense film because of its self-organizing characteristics while neutral ones make a porous skeletal structure because of its Brownian coagulation. The charged cluster model can successfully explain the unusual phenomenon of simultaneous deposition and etching taking place in diamond and silicon CVD processes. It also provides a new interpretation on the selective deposition on a conducting material in the CVDd process. The epitaxial sticking of the charged clusters on the growing surface is gettign difficult as the cluster size increases, resulting in the nanostructure such as cauliflowr or granular structures.