COMPUTER-SIMULATION OF SEMICONTINUOUS AND CONTINUOUS METAL-FILM MORPHOLOGY

The methods convenient for the morphological analysis of very thin met al films are analysed by the computer simulation technique. An attempt is made to extend the range of validity of methods developed for the study of discontinuous films using these methods to describe both stru ctures with irregular objects and thicker semicontinuous and continuou s structures. It was found that the covariance function, one of the ba sic methods for the characterisation of spatial distribution of object s in discontinuous metal films, is a convenient approach even in the c ase when other simple morphological methods cannot be used at all. In order to derive the physical meaning of the information obtained from the covariance curves a computer experiment based on four models in th ree modifications for discontinuous, semicontinuous and continuous str uctures was performed. (C) 1998 Published by Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.