Reactor Modeling of Thin-Film Deposition

The main physicochemical processes in thin-film deposition are chemical reactions in the gas phase and on the film surface and heat-mass transfer processes in the reactor chamber. Laboratory deposition reactors have usually a simple geometry to reduce heat-mass transfer limitations and, hence, to simplify the study of film deposition kinetics and optimize process parameters. In this case, one can use simplified gas-dynamics reactor such as well stirred reactor (WSR), calorimetric bomb reactor (CBR, batch reactor), and plug flow reactor (PFR) models to simulate deposition kinetics and compare theoretical data with experimental results. 

Simplified reactor models of a deposition process can be classified by 

Generally, the gas-phase concentrations Nk are described by a set of master equations of chemical kinetic (equations for active masses at the source/sink of the kth substance in the chemical reactions Wk) 

In this case, the source/sink for the surface and condensed-phase component concentrations are as follows  

k(is the rate constant vk the stoichiometric coefficients of the kth component in the ith reaction of reagents and products, correspondingly A, the equilibrium constants the number of sites occupied by surface substance j of condensed phase n F, the surface site density in the th phase standard state and hk and sk the enthalpy and the entropy of the Arth substance. 

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