Control of power law scaling in the growth of silicon nanocolumn pseudo-regular arrays deposited by glancing angle deposition

Nanocolumn pseudo-regular arrays of silicon with controlled aspect ratio and porosity are fabricated by electron-beam evaporation using the glancing angle deposition (GLAD) method with vapour impinging at oblique incidence onto rapidly rotating substrates. The width W at positions y along the height of one individual column scales with y following a power law dependence W approximately y(p). We demonstrate that the scaling exponent value, p, can be modified from 0.6 to 0.3 by varying the vapour incidence angle from 75 degrees to a glancing 89 degrees from the substrate normal. This exponent is an important morphological factor for thin films, as it determines the morphological correlation length, nanocolumn profile, size, and spacing. The nanocolumn mean diameter can be varied between 12 and 40 nm, while the intercolumnar spacing can be adjusted between 37 and 85 nm via changing the incidence angle. The growth mechanism and film morphology are explored in detail.