Modeling glassy SiC nanoribbon by rapidly cooling from the liquid: An affirmation of appropriate potentials

Abstract

Modeling glassy SiC nanoribbon by cooling rapidly the SiC liquid from 8000K to 300K is carried out by molecular dynamics (MD) simulations. Two separated MD simulations are performed, one of which uses the Tersoff potential and the other one uses the Vashishta potential. The temperature dependence of various structural and thermodynamic properties of the systems is analyzed and discussed via the radial distribution functions (RDFs), the coordination number distributions, and the ring statistics. We find that the Tersoff potential is clearly more appropriate in order to obtain the glassy SiC when rapidly cooling is employed.