Evolution of carbon surfaces under simulated bombardment by deuterium

Abstract

The bombardment of both graphite and deuterated amorphous carbon surfaces with 20 eV D atoms has been performed using molecular dynamics simulation. The primary purpose of these simulations is to determine whether the eventual state of the surface, once it has reached a steady state, is independent of the starting structure. It is found that while independently realized amorphous carbon structures give rise to similar impact-modified surfaces, the graphitic surface evolves towards a somewhat different structure. Including or neglecting a realistic treatment of the nonbonded interactions in the graphite bombardment does not result in large differences in the impact-modified structure, although the penetration depth is considerably less when nonbonded interactions are included. © 2009 IOP Publishing Ltd.