Molecular dynamics study of ballistic rearrangement of surface atoms during high energy ion bombardment on Pd (001) surface

Keywords:
molecular dynamics, surface patterning, ion bombardment

Abstract:
In this work, we employed MD simulation to investigate the details of the surface structure evolution during high energy Ar bombardment on Pd (001) surface. From the statistical manner by summing up for 1,000 independent bombardment events, the number of rearranged atoms, defined by the atoms located over the initial surface, is much larger than that of the sputtered atoms. Lateral distribution of the rearranged atoms reveals 4 fold symmetric pattern when the incidence angle ranged from 0 to 60 degrees. At the grazing incidence over 60 degrees, the rearrangement occurred along the beam direction. These results are in good agreement with the previous experimental observation, which reveals the significant role of the ballistic rearrangement of the substrate atoms in the nanoscale surface structure formation by ion bombardment.

Nanotech 2008 Conference Program Abstract