Modeling of silica sol-gel thin films with ballistic aggregation

An algorithm based on ballistic aggregation is proposed for modeling of atomic structure of sol-gel thin films. In the model, growth of structures changes smoothly from three-dimensional to two-dimensional as a limiting parameter starts to influence the results. Thus, this algorithm enables modeling of flat structures such as, practically important, thin films of various glass-like materials. Various sets of aggregation parameters are investigated and limitations of the model are determined.