A nucleation and growth model of silicon nanoparticles produced by pulsed laser deposition via Monte Carlo simulation

We simulated the nucleation and growth of Si nanoparticles produced by pulse laser deposition using Monte Carlo method at the molecular (microscopic) level. In the model, the mechanism and thermodynamic conditions of nucleation and growth of Si nanoparticles were described. In a real physical scale of target-substrate configuration, the model was used to analyze the average size distribution of Si nanoparticles in argon ambient gas and the calculated results are in agreement with the experimental results.