Deposition of small Cu and Au clusters on Cu(001) surface: Structure characteristic

Deposition of small Cu and Au clusters on a Cu(001) surface was studied by molecular dynamics simulation using Finnis-Sinclair tight-binding potential. The impact energy varied from 0.1 to 6.0 eV/atom. The adlayer structure was found to be dependent on the specific substrate and projectile materials. The structure rearrangement of supported clusters on the surface was observed for both Cu and Au clusters. The Cu adlayer has a good fcc structure as that of substrate. However, the nanostructure was found for Au adlayer on a Cu(001) surface. Our results axe consistent with other reports that the nanostructure is mainly caused by the lattice-parameter mismatch. Besides that, the cluster size and the impact energy are the key parameters that can affect the morphology of deposited films.