A simulation study was performed in order to interpret the experimental results in the previous report on roughness reduction in Au thin films by microwave post annealing in comparison with an electric furnace. The simulation model of this study is based on one-dimensional capillary driven surface diffusion with incorporation of electromigration force due to microwave irradiation. It was shown that alternating microwave electric field does not cancel the atomic migration completely, because of the capillary driven (thermal) effects simultaneously occurring within the alternation period, but is not adequate to account for the variation of the film profiles and the observed wave number spectra. In this study, capillary model was applied to the furnace annealing, and an anisotropic factor in atomic transport by electromigration was introduced in microwave annealing simulations. We reproduced the profiles and spectra changes observed in the experiments by both annealing methods.

进行了模拟研究，以解释先前报告中的实验结果，该报告与电炉相比，通过微波后退火降低了 Au 薄膜的粗糙度。本研究的模拟模型基于一维毛细管驱动的表面扩散，并结合了微波辐射引起的电迁移力。结果表明，交替微波电场并不能完全消除原子迁移，因为在交替周期内同时发生毛细管驱动（热）效应，但不足以解释薄膜轮廓和观察到的波数的变化光谱。本研究将毛细管模型应用于炉内退火，在微波退火模拟中引入了电迁移原子传输中的各向异性因子。我们通过两种退火方法重现了实验中观察到的轮廓和光谱变化。