Deposition mechanism of nano-structured single-layered C₃₆film on a diamond (100) crystal plane

Abstract

The Brenner-LJ potential is adopted to describe the interaction between C 36 clusters and diamond surface, and the deposition mechanism of multi-C 36 clusters on the diamond surface is also studied by using the method of molecular dynamics simulation. The simulation results show that the competition effects of two interactions, i.e. the interaction between cluster and cluster and the interaction between cluster and crystal plane, are studied, and then the influence of these competition effects on C 36 cluster deposition is analysed. The finding is that when an incident energy is appropriately chosen, C 36 clusters can be chemically adsorbed and deposited steadily on the diamond surface in the form of single-layer, and in the deposition process the multi-C 36 clusters present a phenomenon of energy transmission. The experimental result shows that at a temperature of 300K, in order to deposit C 36 clusters into a steady nanostructured single-layered film, the optimal incident energy is between 10 and 18 eV, if the incident energy is larger than 18 eV, the C 36 clusters will be deposited into an island nano-structured film.