Molecular dynamics study of Al atom and Al-55 cluster deposition on Al substrates

Abstract

We studied aluminum cluster deposition using by molecular dynamics simulation. The interaction between Al atoms nas calculated using by the tight-binding potential. We found the reason, in the case of cluster deposition, the FCC structure rearrangement occurs easily on the surface. Since the collision time between a cluster and the substrate is longer than that between a single atom and the surface, the substrate receives the thermal energy from energetic clusters during a long period and the thermal energy dissipates slowly. The thermal energy in the case of cluster deposition maintains a higher temperature longer than that in the case of atom deposition and leads to the self-annealing effect. Therefore, in the case of cluster deposition, self-annealing plays a very important role in the surface structure rearrangement.