Morphology of discontinuous metal films with pronounced secondary nucleation

Abstract Computer experimental methods are used to study the initial stages of growth of metallic layers on a dielectric substrate. The main focus of attention is the growth phases of the metallic layers in which secondary nucleation phenomena are more pronounced. Standard morphological methods are tested and new ones are proposed to describe these kinds of strongly inhomogeneous structures. The simulated metallic films were generated using an atomistic model that combines both molecular dynamics and Monte Carlo approaches. It is shown that classical morphological methods such as the quadrat counts method do not provide satisfactory results for the image analysis of such structures, and consequently, new morphological approaches are proposed that will allow the analysis of such structures.