MD study on high-energy reactive cluster impact on diamond (111) and (100) surfaces

Abstract. Seven structures of covalently bonded materials are used as targets of 6 keV Ar12 cluster bombardment in classical molecular dynamics simulations. Energy deposition, cratering and Ar ranges are compared and remarkable differences are found between the structures. In particular, bombardment of a thin 2 nm silica layer on top of the Si(111) surface is shown to behave quite differently from bombardment of pure Si.

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“…[1] and references therein). Most of the simulations have been done using ideal surfaces of pure crystals or amorphous targets.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Argon cluster impacts on layered silicon, silica, and graphite surfaces

et al. 2007

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“…In earlier MD simulation studies of GCIB processes [30,31,36,37,39], a cluster of molecules with a given total kinetic energy was injected into a model substrate surface. In this study, a cluster consists of a few hundred to several thousand O 2 molecules and the substrate is the Si (100) surface.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…A beam of ionized gas clusters is called a gas cluster ion beam (GCIB) [24][25][26][27][28][29][30][31][32][33][34][35][36][37][38][39][40][41]. In typical GCIB experiments, gas cluster beams are accelerated up to about 20 keV.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Numerical Simulation of Atomic Layer Oxidation of Silicon by Oxygen Gas Cluster Beams

Mizotani

Isobe

Karahashi

et al. 2015

Plasma and Fusion Research

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A gas cluster is a collection of atoms or molecules weakly bound by van der Waals forces. Gas clusters may form by the adiabatic expansion of gases. In this study, it is demonstrated by molecular dynamics simulations that a low-energy beam of oxygen gas clusters may be used to oxidize the top surface layer of silicon (Si) substrates without affecting its deeper layers. An incident oxygen gas cluster with sufficiently low incident energy may stick to the Si surface and expose a large number of oxygen molecules to the surface Si atoms for extended periods until the cluster sublimates. This may cause the formation of Si-O bonds only on the top Si surface. This is in contrast to the oxidation of Si by oxygen ion beams or plasmas, where deeper layers of the Si surface are typically oxidized by the energetic incident oxygen ions. An oxidized single Si layer may be chemically removed; therefore, this nearly single-layer oxidation process by oxygen gas cluster beams may lead to the development of a new atomic layer etching technology for Si.

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