Be-B thin film growth: A deep potential and molecular dynamics study

doi:10.1088/1674-1056/ae0309

Abstract Beryllium-boron (BeB) thin films are important target materials in inertial confinement fusion (ICF) experiments. In this work, molecular dynamics simulations combined with deep learning methods were employed to investigate the deposition behavior and structural evolution of BeB films. The effects of incident angle, incident energy and substrate temperature on the film growth process were systematically studied. A deep learning approach was used to develop interaction potentials based on Be and B elements and the known BeB crystalline phases, enabling an accurate description of cluster growth during deposition. The simulation results indicate that appropriate control of the incident parameters and substrate temperature can significantly improve the surface quality of the films. These findings may offer preliminary insights into the optimization of experimental conditions for the fabrication of high-quality BeB thin films.

Keywords: growth of beryllium-boron films deep potential energy function molecular dynamics simulation cluster sputtering

Received: 24 April 2025
Revised: 29 July 2025
Accepted manuscript online: 04 September 2025

PACS:	68.55.-a	(Thin film structure and morphology)
	81.15.Aa	(Theory and models of film growth)

Fund: We acknowledge the support of the National Key R&D Program of China (Grant No. 2024YFF0508503).

Corresponding Authors: Hong Zhang
E-mail: hongzhang@scu.edu.cn

Cite this article:

Xilei Wang(王熙蕾) and Hong Zhang(张红) Be-B thin film growth: A deep potential and molecular dynamics study 2026 Chin. Phys. B 35 046801

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Be-B thin film growth: A deep potential and molecular dynamics study

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