| EPSRC Reference: |
GR/M31705/01 |
| Title: |
GROWTH MODES & RELAXATION MECHANISMS IN EPITAXIAL THIN SOLID FILMS |
| Principal Investigator: |
Cocks, Professor AC |
| Other Investigators: |
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| Project Partners: |
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| Department: |
Engineering |
| Organisation: |
University of Leicester |
| Scheme: |
Standard Research (Pre-FEC) |
| Starts: |
01 February 1999 |
Ends: |
31 March 2002 |
Value (£): |
148,448
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| EPSRC Research Topic Classifications: |
| Materials Synthesis & Growth |
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| EPSRC Industrial Sector Classifications: |
| No relevance to Underpinning Sectors |
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Summary on Grant Application Form |
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The manufacture of complex devices at an increasingly small scale requires an improved understanding of the kinetic processes involved in their fabrication. Many factors affect the growth mode, defect structure and stability of thin films. Mechanical modelling of film formation processes can provide useful insights into the effect of various material parameters and processing conditions. The growth of a continuous thin film (or quantum line or dot) is a complex situation as the system is rarely in an equilibrium state and there are a large number of diffusive mechanisms and competing driving forces involved. This is particularly the case for elastically strained epitaxial films in which the film can relax by a combination of morphological changes, phase transformations and defect formation. The proposed work aims to produce a numerical simulation of material transport in the presence of elastic strain (mismatch or compositional) for any geometrical configuration. It will incorporate the nucleation of defects and the subsequent motion of these defects. These simulations will be used to develop constitutive equations describing the material response in terms of a number of state variables. These techniques also have great potential in other areas of materials engineering.
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Key Findings |
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This information can now be found on Gateway to Research (GtR) http://gtr.rcuk.ac.uk
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Potential use in non-academic contexts |
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This information can now be found on Gateway to Research (GtR) http://gtr.rcuk.ac.uk
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Impacts |
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| Description |
This information can now be found on Gateway to Research (GtR) http://gtr.rcuk.ac.uk |
| Summary |
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| Date Materialised |
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Sectors submitted by the Researcher |
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This information can now be found on Gateway to Research (GtR) http://gtr.rcuk.ac.uk
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| Project URL: |
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| Further Information: |
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| Organisation Website: |
http://www.le.ac.uk |