Molecular dynamics simulations on the effect of energy deposition rate on the electrical explosion of metal nanowires

Abstract

We performed molecular dynamics simulations of the electrical explosion of aluminum nanowires in vacuum, and studied the effect of time rate of energy deposition on the exploding nanowires. The matched regime explosion was employed to eliminate the influence of the plasma corona layer. Our results showed that, under a given energy ratio of 0.45, all the four simulations with different specified energy deposition rates experienced surface evaporation and small cluster ejection processes. Production of large clusters can be observed only during the phase explosion period. When the energy deposition rates were reduced, phase explosions, however, became weak or even absent. If surface evaporation and small cluster ejection dominated the explosion, there would finally leave a residual liquid core.