Simulation of depositions of a Lennard-Jones cluster on a crystalline surface

TL;DR

This paper uses molecular dynamics simulations to study how Lennard-Jones clusters deposit on crystalline surfaces, revealing a transition from multilayer to monolayer adsorption at a critical speed and analyzing the effects of incident speed and atom interactions.

Contribution

It introduces a detailed simulation analysis of cluster deposition, highlighting the transition behavior and unstable modes affecting the deposited shape.

Findings

Transition from multilayer to monolayer adsorption at a critical incident speed

Energy conservation explains the ratio of adsorbed atoms to cluster size

Boundary shape depends on incident speed and unstable modes grow during spreading

Abstract

Depositions of amorphous Lennard-Jones clusters on a crystalline surface are numerically investigated. From the results of the molecular dynamics simulation, we found that the deposited clusters exhibit a transition from multilayered adsorption to monolayered adsorption at a critical incident speed. Employing the energy conservation law, we can explain the behavior of the ratio of the number of atoms adsorbed on the substrate to the cluster size. The boundary shape of the deposited cluster depends strongly on the incident speed and some unstable modes grow during the spread of the deposited cluster on the substrate. We also discuss the wettability between different Lennard-Jones atoms.