Simulations of C28 chemisorption on diamond „001...-„2Ã1... surface: The comparison between cluster–cluster interaction and cluster–surface interaction

In this article, the dynamic behavior of C28 chemisorption on diamond ~001!-~231! surface was investigated by molecular dynamics simulation. The many-body Brenner potential was employed to describe the interaction between carbon atoms. With the incident energy ranging from 25 to 40 eV, the single C28 was found to have more than 50% of the probability to be chemisorbed on a diamond surface and to form two C–C bonds with one dimer of the surface. Then the chemisorption of two C28 clusters was simulated at the above energy range. The cluster–cluster interaction was found to hinder the next incident cluster to be chemisorbed. Besides, the juxtaposition configuration of two C28 on the surface was observed when their impact points were along the same dimer row. For multicluster impacting, when two or three clusters formed a nucleation site, the forthcoming cluster was easily to be adsorbed close to it. The growth of the C28 cluster assembled film is typically a three dimensional island mode. Our study also showed that within the energy range the C28 clusters retained their cage structure after chemisorption. This is in agreement with experimental results. © 2000 American Institute of Physics. @S0021-8979~00!03223-0#