Molecular Dynamics Simulation of Al Energetic Nano Cluster Impact (ECI) onto the Surface

On the atomic scale, Molecular Dynamic (MD) Simulation of Nano Al cluster impact on Al (100) substrate surface has been carried out for energies of 1-20 eV/atom to understand quantitatively the interaction mechanisms between the cluster atoms and the substrate atoms. The many body Embedded Atom Method (EAM) was used in this simulation. We investigated the maximum substrate temperature Tmax  and the time tmax within which this temperature is reached as a function of cluster sizes. The temperature Tmax is linearly proportional to both energy per atom and total cluster energy. For the constant energy per atom and the cluster size increase, the correlated collisions rapidly transferred energy to the substrate, and the time tmax approached a constant value. We investigated the temperature Tmax dependence on the total energy ET and the cluster size. We showed that the cluster implantation and sputtering atoms from the surface are affected by the cluster size and kinetic energy of the clusters.  Finally, time dependence of the number Ndis of disordered atoms in the substrate was observed.