Deposition mechanism of nano-structured single-layered C₃₆ film on a diamond (100) crystal plane

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 nano-structured 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.