Molecular dynamics study on the deposition of Ni/graphene composite film

Y Rong and L Zhang and HP He, THIN SOLID FILMS, 732, 138778 (2021).

DOI: 10.1016/j.tsf.2021.138778

The Ni/graphene composite films deposited on Fe (001) substrate were studied by molecular dynamics simulation. The effects of incident energy and graphene nanoplatelet (GNP) size on the growth of the films were studied. The surface roughness, growth mode, crystal structure and orientation of the films under different deposition conditions were compared and analyzed. The simulation results show that when the incident energy is low, the Stranski-Krastanov growth mode is dominant; when the incident energy reaches a certain value, the film begins to grow in the Frank-Vander Merwe mode. The surface roughness decreases with the increase of incident energy due to the enhancement of surface diffusion. With the addition of GNPs, the surface roughness of the films increased significantly. The crystal structure and orientation of the deposited films were studied based on the adaptive common neighbor analysis and centrosymmetric parameters. The incident energy affects the crystal structure and orientation of the films. GNPs affect the growth mode of Ni grains, which makes Ni grains grow along (111) direction on it.

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