Numerical simulation of the influence of substitutional impurity on the interaction between low-energy Pt atoms and Pt(111) surface

Abstract

The deposition process of low-energy Pt atoms on Pt (111) surface doped with substitutional impurity Cu, Ag, Au, Ni, or Pd was studied by using molecular dynamics simulation. The atomic interaction potentials with the embedded atom method (EAM) were applied in the simulation. The effects of substitutional impurity on the adatom yield, sputtering yield, and vacancy yield have been observed and summarized. We found that substitutional impurity considerably affects the adatom yield, sputtering yield, and vacancy yield. The main reasons influencing the interaction between low-energy atoms and Pt (111) surfaces are the kinetic energy of incident atoms and the mass of substitutional impurity. The light substitutional atoms induced the preferred sputtering of substitutional impurity. A model based the binary collision theory and the atomic reflection mechanism by the substrate is suggested to describe the low-energy deposition process.