Electrical conductivity and thin-film growth dynamics

It is known that surface steps can give rise to diffusion barriers and gene rate moundlike rough surfaces during thin-him growth. We study the influenc e of moundlike rough surfaces on electron scattering and electrical conduct ivity of semiconducting and metallic thin films. For a semiconducting film, the intraminiband cutoff q(c) limits the contribution from mound surface s cattering. Three different cases are illustrated to show how surface morpho logy affects the conductivity: q(0)<q(c), q(0)=q(c), and q(0)>q(c). Here go is the ring position of the surface power spectrum. For a metallic film wi th a single rough boundary, quantum size effect (QSE) oscillations are shif ted in phase and weakened by the presence of wavelength selection in surfac e morphology. In this case, the conductivity reaches a minimum at a certain value of the system correlation length zeta when the mound separation lamb da obeys the condition lambda>lambda(F) or lambda<lambda(F) (lambda(F) bein g the Fermi wavelength). The presence of cross correlation in films with tw o rough boundaries greatly influences the initial stage of QSE oscillation of metallic films. Finally, we show that the size and shape of quantum effe cts depend very much on the different growth modes. The power-law behavior of the conductivity versus film thickness can be dramatically altered durin g dynamic growth, which provides a reasonable explanation for recent experi ments.