Simulations of nanoscale spatial disorder

Abstract

In this thesis, we detail the design, implementation, and testing of two simulations of nanometer scale disorder phenomena important for electronic device fabrication. We created a kinetic simulator for the surface assembly of quantum dots into ordered or disordered monolayers. We utilized a platform for high-precision motion and collision resolution and implemented the behavior of quantum dots on a surface. The simulation demonstrated experimentally observed behavior and offers insights into future device design. We also created a material simulation of the electrochemical oxidation of a metal surface with nanoscale roughness. We demonstrated that by preserving the amount of metal and making the oxide coating conformal, anodization can highly planarize the metal surface. We verify the convergence of our results as we increase the accuracy of our model. We demonstrate differences in the rate of planarization between additive and subtractive surface features which could not be observed by experiment and make predictions about the planarization of metals with different oxide expansion coefficients.