Molecular dynamics simulation of gold cluster growth during sputter deposition

TL;DR

This paper introduces a molecular dynamics simulation method to study the growth of gold clusters during sputter deposition, providing detailed insights into surface morphology evolution and aligning well with experimental data.

Contribution

The study develops a simulation scheme that models plasma-assisted gold sputter deposition, offering new real-space data on cluster growth dynamics and surface morphology.

Findings

Good agreement with experimental cluster properties

Provides detailed time-dependent surface morphology data

Enhances understanding of sputter deposition processes

Abstract

We present a molecular dynamics simulation scheme that we apply to study the time evolution of the self-organized growth process of metal cluster assemblies formed by sputter-deposited gold atoms on a planar surface. The simulation model incorporates the characteristics of the plasma-assisted deposition process and allows for an investigation over a wide range of deposition parameters. It is used to obtain data for the cluster properties which can directly be compared to recently published experimental data for gold on polystyrene (M. Schwartzkopf \textit{et al}., ACS Appl. Mater. Interfaces \textbf{7}, 13547 (2015)). While good agreement is found between the two, the simulations additionally provide valuable time-dependent real-space data of the surface morphology some of whose details are hidden in the reciprocal-space scattering images that were used for the experimental analysis.