Ultra-thin and continuous metallic silver films are attracting growing interest due to the applications in flexible transparent conducting electrodes. The surface morphology and structure of silver film are very important for its electrical resistivity and optical loss. Therefore, roughness control is essential for the production of ultra-thin metallic electrode film. We have investigated the effect of aluminum doping on the improvement of surface morphology of ultra-thin silver films using molecular dynamics simulations. Al-doped silver films showed smaller surface roughness than pure silver films at various substrate temperatures. When the temperature of the substrate was 600 K, the roughness of Al-doped silver film first decreased, and then increased with the increase of the incident velocity of silver atoms. Silver atoms were more likely to agglomerate on the surface of the substrate after adding aluminum atoms, as aluminum dopants promoted the immobilization of silver atoms on SiO₂ substrate due to the anchoring effect. The smoother surface could be attributable to the reduced mean free path of silver due to the cage effect by the aluminum dopant.

Ultrathin silver films with low loss in the visible and near-infrared spectrum range have been widely used in the fields of metamaterials and optoelectronics. In this study, Al-doped silver films were prepared by the magnetron sputtering method and were characterized by surface morphology, electrical conductivity, and light transmittance analyses. Molecular dynamics simulations and first-principles density functional theory calculations were applied to study the surface morphologies and migration pathway for the formation mechanisms in Al-doped silver films. The results indicate that the migration barrier of silver on a pristine silver surface is commonly lower than that of an Al-doped surface, revealing that the aluminum atoms in the doping site decrease the surface mobility and are conducive to the formation of small islands of silver. When the islands are dense, they coalesce into a single layer, leading to a smoother surface. This might be the reason for the observably lower 3D growth mode of silver on an Al-doped silver surface. Our results with electronic structure insights on the mechanism of the Al dopants on surface morphologies might benefit the quality control of the silver thin films.