Molecular Dynamics Simulation of Copper Thin Film Growth on β-Ta (002) Substrate

Tantalum can be used both as a diffusion barrier and an adhesion layer for copper metallization for semiconductor devices. Experiments show that β-Ta (200) substrates promote (111) texture growth in copper films. In this study, we first create an embedded atom method (EAM) Cu-Ta potential developed by our force matching method (FMM); then the potential is used for Molecular Dynamics (MD) simulations of initial copper thin film growth on β-Ta substrates. Both Cu/Ta interfacial structures and copper film structure are investigated. The relevance to (111) texturing is discussed.