Coarse-grained molecular dynamics simulation of automatic nanomanipulation process: The effect of tip damage on the positioning errors

Abstract

One of the applications of nanorobots is the automatic nanomanipulation process. The experimental results indicate that nanomanipulations that are performed in a long time span are not very precise, and often the existence of different error sources, including the tip damage, causes these results to deviate from the intended outcome. In this article, by focusing on the phenomenon of tip damage in the automatic manipulation mechanism, the Coarse-Grained Molecular Dynamics (CGMDs) method has been used to provide suggestions for the prediction of the damaging effects and for the estimation of the amount of positioning errors. For this purpose, the tip’s root mean squares (RMSs) changes during five steps of nickel (Ni) particle manipulation by tips of different materials have been investigated. In the end, the deformations of the tip and nanoparticle and also the amount of positioning error at each step of this process are estimated. Using the results of this article in a real situation, in order to improve the accuracy of the automatic manipulation process, once the positioning error at each step is known, an appropriate amount of additional displacement can be added to the tip base in order to achieve a more exact particle positioning.