Molecular dynamics simulations of SrTiO₃ thin-film growth from cluster deposition

We use classical molecular dynamics simulations to examine the deposition of SrTiO₃ stoichiometric clusters on (001) SrTiO₃. The simulations consider the deposition of clusters that consist of one, two, three or four stoichiometric units that have incident energies of 1.0 eV/atom. Two types of beam compositions are considered: those that are comprised of mono-sized clusters and those that are comprised of mixed-sized clusters along with individual SrO and TiO₂ particles. The results are analyzed to determine the effect of surface termination layer (SrO versus TiO₂), cluster size and beam composition on the resulting thin-film structure. The simulations indicate that termination layer and beam composition have an impact on the resulting film structure with mixed-beam composition and TiO₂ termination yielding films with a structure similar to that of bulk STO.