Molecular Dynamics Simulations of Cluster Ion Impact on Diamond Surface

Abstract

ABSTRACTMolecular dynamics (MD) simulations of various cluster ions impacting on solid targets were performed in order to examine the implant and damage formation processes. Ne and Ar rare gas cluster with various cluster sizes, and fullerene (C60) were impacted on diamond (001) surface. It was shown that the impact process of cluster ion depends on the cluster size. When the cluster size is small and incident energy-per-atom is high, such as Ar15 with 800eV/atom, all incident Ar atoms penetrate the surface and reside in the substrate. As the cluster size increases and the incident energy-per-atom decreases, the implant depth decreases and the profile of the displacement becomes shallower. A large cluster, such as Ar60 with 200eV/atom, shows a shallower implant depth and a higher sputtering yield than Ar15. However, Ar240 with 50eV/atom shows a shallower implant depth, but less sputtering yield than Ar60.These results suggest that there is proper cluster size and incident energy where the maximum sputtering yield is achieved.