A tight-binding simulation of the atom-by-atom deposition of
amorphous carbon (a-C) at 100 eV incident energy is presented. More
than 500 atoms were deposited. Chains are observed to form on
the surface, some of which are sputtered. The good agreement
with the experimental sputter frequency data and observation
that all such clusters are linear provides strong support for
the existence of these chains and the direct emission model of
sputtering. The bulk of the grown film is a-C with
a tetrahedral bonding fraction of 20%. Experiments have shown
that at this incident energy of 100 eV, tetrahedral a-C
is the preferred structural form rather than the
a-C produced by this simulation. This discrepancy
is attributed to the short range of the interatomic potential.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.