Molecular dynamics modeling of microstructure evolution during growth of amorphous carbon films

Abstract

Amorphous carbon films approximately 20 nm thick are used throughout the computer industry as protective coatings on magnetic storage disks. As storage densities increase, the role of the overcoat becomes increasingly important because of smaller spacings between the recording head and the spinning disk. Furthermore, future-generation disks call for an overcoat thickness of 5 nm or less. These small length scales and the high speed of the spinning disk (10-30 m/s) suggest that a molecular dynamics (MD) model might provide useful insight into friction and wear mechanisms when the head and disk make contact. One of the necessary inputs required to carry out such an MD model is a specification of the position of all the atoms in the simulation, i.e. a detailed model of the material microstructure. Such a detailed understanding of the microstructure of amorphous carbon overcoats does not presently exist. Neutron and electron diffraction studies demonstrate that the material is amorphous. Previous classical MD simulations yield pair distribution functions in qualitative agreement with the diffraction studies, but they all differ in detail. More recent, quantum-mechanical tight-binding MD (TBMD) studies give a better description of the interatomic interactions and the chemical hybridization (sp{sup 2}-graphite-like versus sp{sup 3}-diamond-like). However, these studies are presently limited to rather small system sizes and rapid quench rates. In this paper we present molecular dynamics simulations of the growth of amorphous carbon films deposited onto a diamond substrate using a bond-order potential model. This classical potential mimics the quantum mechanics allowing carbon to form strong chemical bonds with a variety of hybridizations. It was found that the system formed unphysical bonding configurations without an added torsional energy between sp{sup 2} hybridized carbon atoms. This torsional energy was included for all results presented here. 18 refs., 3 figs.