Dependence of Adhesion and Reflection on Orientation in Nanocluster Deposition

Abstract

We consider the deposition of icosahedral clusters on a weakly adhesive substrate using molecular dynamics. We identify three characteristic orientations that lead to distinct collision behavior: vertexfirst, edgefirst and facetfirst. At low velocities, the collision depends strongly on cluster orientation with vertexfirst collisions leading to reflections and edgefirst collisions leading to adhesion. At high velocities, the collisions depend only weakly on orientation with the majority of collisions leading to reflection.