A new view of film growth mechanisms: A scanning tunneling microscopic perspective

ucleation, growth, and electronic evolution of films were studied. High vacuum, thermally deposited gold films from 3 to 350 A thick evolved through three morphologies. At small surface coverages, increased thin film chemical potential combined with cluster migration promotes growth of islands comprised of small clusters. At intermediate coverages, compressive stresses produce undulating and/or stepped island surfaces. At complete coverages, reduced surface mobility of gold atoms on gold surfaces initiates columnar growth on top of stepped island surfaces.;Ultra high vacuum, thermally deposited gold films form large and flat dendritic islands. A series of 7 A thick films were deposited at 10;Transparent, conducting ITO films have technical problems because as conductivity increases, transparency decreases. To elucidate this relationship, island morphology and electronic local density of states were monitored simultaneously using STM and STS beginning with the earliest ITO film growth stages.;Growth initiates when metal oxide entities agglomerate into small amorphous clusters. Dimers, trimers and tetramers were observed with separations distributed from 0.17 to 0.93 nm, uncorrelated with crystalline lattice atomic separation.;In nineteen cases, ITO islands small enough to exhibit band gap quantization were stable enough that the electronic structure was reliably measured using STS. The maximum observed band gap was 508 meV (3.3 A tall island), and the band gap closed at island thickness of ;At surface coverages of...