Molecular dynamics simulation of ionized cluster beam deposition using the tight-binding model

Abstract

This paper employs molecular dynamics (MD) simulation to investigate the ionized cluster beam deposition (ICBD) process, and focuses particularly upon the cluster/substrate interaction, including void formation, impact energy transformation, atom motion trajectory, surface reconstruction, and atomic structure variation during the impact process. The many-body, tight-binding potential method is used to simulate the interatomic force which exists between the atoms. The results indicate that atomic motion caused by the impact of the cluster occurs in the closed-packed directions, both for atoms on the substrate surface, and for those within the substrate. Furthermore, it is found that the diffusion of kinetic energy, and transformation of the impact force also occurs in this direction. Finally, it is observed that the structure of the substrate in the impact region tends to become a disordered (liquid) phase during the initial impact period, but that it then recovers to a crystalline structure at steady state conditions.