Molecular Dynamics Simulations of Silver-induced Crystallization in Silicon Nanocluster

Metal-induced crystallization (MIC) has been investigated extensively as an alternative crystallization process in the silicon based photovoltaic industry. In this work, we simulate a nanoscale version of this process by using molecular dynamics simulation involving liquid Si nanoclusters inoculated with Ag atoms in Ar thermal bath. The simulations reveal that the energy released during coalescence of the silver silicide region is the main factor to remelt the surface of the Si nanocluster. In an earlier report, Ag nanoparticles is observed to induced crystallization in 12-15 nm- diameter silicon cluster, which upon further cooling results in nano-polycrystalline silicon core and segregated Ag sub-shells. The work focuses on the crucial conditions that influence the MIC process, such as (i) number of Ag atoms per unit volume, (ii) initial temperature of Si cluster, (iii) crystallization temperature and (iv) cooling rate of the Si cluster. The results presented in this study provide insight into the effect of the first three parameters. Also, the results suggest that the coalescence of eutectic phase is the essential step which induces the crystallization

Atom-level growth mechanism of nanoparticles by magnetron sputtering inert gas condensation

"There's Plenty of Room at the Bottom.", the lecture by Prof. Richard Feynman on December, 29th, 1959 at Caltech, USA, describes the field, which is "not quite the same as the others in that it will not tell us much of fundamental physics but it is more like solid-state physics in the sense that it might tell us much of great interest about the strange phenomena that occur in complex situations." This simple inspiring idea has often been referred to as the first "seed" of one of the most promising interdisciplinary branches of science, nanoscience. Nanoparticles (NPs), one of the primary building blocks for nanostructures and its application, have been incidentally synthesized and used by ancient Romans when manufacturing beautiful cups. Modern technology requires the synthesis of NPs to be precise for specific application. The composition, structure, morphology and size are four parameters which dominate the properties of NPs. How to develop a method which can control these parameters accurately and precisely is an essential question for the researchers of nanoscience. Among the wide range of existing synthesis methods, magnetron sputtering inert gas condensation has been commonly used during recent years. The method allows simultaneous control of composition, magnetron power, inert gas pressure, NP drift velocity, and aggregation zone length. To achieve a reliable control of the fabricated NPs, it is essential to understand how the nano-scale growth is influenced by these experimental conditions. In this thesis, the growth mechanisms of Si, NiCr and Fe nanoparticles are studied using multi-scale simulation methods. We investigate the effects of the macro-scaled experimental parameters on the structural properties of nanoparticles. The work presented here is a step towards the understanding of the growth process of NPs in inert gas condensation chambers and the precise control of NP properties

Piezoelectric Wind Energy Harvesting from Self-Excited Vibration of Square Cylinder

Self-excited vibration of a square cylinder has been considered as an effective way in harvesting piezoelectric wind energy. In present work, both of the vortex-induced vibration and unstable galloping phenomenon process are investigated in a reduced velocity (Ur=U/ωn·D) range of 4≤Ur≤20 with load resistance ranging in 100 Ω≤R≤1 MΩ. The vortex-induced vibration covers presynchronization, synchronization, and postsynchronization branches. An aeroelectromechanical model is given to describe the coupling of the dynamic equation of the fluid-structure interaction and the equation of Gauss law. The effects of load resistance are investigated in both the open-circuit and close-circuit system by a linear analysis, which covers the parameters of the transverse displacement, aerodynamic force, output voltage, and harvested power utilized to measure the efficiency of the system. The highest level of the transverse displacement and the maximum value of harvested power of synchronization branch during the vortex-induced vibration and galloping are obtained. The results show that the large-amplitude galloping at high wind speeds can generate energy. Additionally, energy can be harvested by utilization of the lock-in phenomenon of vortex-induced vibration under low wind speed

Spatial distribution of particles sputtered from single crystals by gas cluster ions

Volume: 406 Host publication title: Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research Section B: Beam Interactions with Materials and AtomsThe results of molecular dynamics simulations of the bombardment of the Cu (100) and Mo (100) single-crystals by 10 keV Ar cluster ions of different sizes are presented in this paper. Spatial distributions of sputtered material were calculated. The anisotropy of the angular distributions of sputtered atoms was revealed. It was found that the character of the anisotropy is different for Cu and Mo targets. The reasons leading to this anisotropy are discussed according to the dependences of the angular distributions on the cluster size and on the target material.Peer reviewe

Formation and emission mechanisms of Ag nanoclusters in the Ar matrix assembly cluster source

In this paper, we study the mechanisms of growth of Ag nanoclusters in a solid Ar matrix and the emission of these nanoclusters from the matrix by a combination of experimental and theoretical methods. The molecular dynamics simulations show that the cluster growth mechanism can be described as "thermal spike-enhanced clustering" in multiple sequential ion impact events. We further show that experimentally observed large sputtered metal clusters cannot be formed by direct sputtering of Ag mixed in the Ar. Instead, we describe the mechanism of emission of the metal nanocluster that, at first, is formed in the cryogenic matrix due to multiple ion impacts, and then is emitted as a result of the simultaneous effects of interface boiling and spring force. We also develop an analytical model describing this size-dependent cluster emission. The model bridges the atomistic simulations and experimental time and length scales, and allows increasing the controllability of fast generation of nanoclusters in experiments with a high production rate.Peer reviewe

Complex Ga2O3\mathrm{Ga}_{2}\mathrm{O}_{3} Polymorphs Explored by Accurate and General-Purpose Machine-Learning Interatomic Potentials

$\mathrm{Ga}_{2}\mathrm{O}_{3}$ is a wide-bandgap semiconductor of emergent importance for applications in electronics and optoelectronics. However, vital information of the properties of complex coexisting $\mathrm{Ga}_{2}\mathrm{O}_{3}$ polymorphs and low-symmetry disordered structures is missing. In this work, we develop two types of kernel-based machine-learning Gaussian approximation potentials (ML-GAPs) for $\mathrm{Ga}_{2}\mathrm{O}_{3}$ with high accuracy for $\beta$/$\kappa$/$\alpha$/$\delta$/$\gamma$ polymorphs and generality for disordered stoichiometric structures. We release two versions of interatomic potentials in parallel, namely soapGAP and tabGAP, for excellent accuracy and exceeding speedup, respectively. We systematically show that both the soapGAP and tabGAP can reproduce the structural properties of all the five polymorphs in an exceptional agreement with ab initio results, meanwhile boost the computational efficiency with $5\times10^{2}$ and $2\times10^{5}$ computing speed increases compared to density functional theory, respectively. The results show that the liquid-solid phase transition proceeds in three different stages, a "slow transition", "fast transition" and "only Ga migration". We show that this complex dynamics can be understood in terms of different behavior of O and Ga sublattices in the interfacial layer.Comment: 13 pages, 7 figure

Core-Satellite Gold Nanoparticle Complexes Grown by Inert Gas-Phase Condensation

Spontaneous growth of complexes consisted of a number of individual nanoparticles in a controlled manner, particularly in demanding environments of gas-phase synthesis, is a fascinating opportunity for numerous potential applications. Here, we report the formation of such core-satellite gold nanoparticle structures grown by magnetron sputtering inert gas condensation. Combining high-resolution scanning transmission electron microscopy and computational simulations, we reveal the adhesive and screening role of H2O molecules in formation of stable complexes consisted of one nanoparticle surrounded by smaller satellites. A single layer of H2O molecules, condensed between large and small gold nanoparticles, stabilizes positioning of nanoparticles with respect to one another during milliseconds of the synthesis time. The lack of isolated small gold nanoparticles on the substrate is explained by Brownian motion that is significantly broader for small-size particles. It is inferred that H2O as an admixture in the inert gas condensation opens up possibilities of controlling the final configuration of the different noble metal nanoparticles.Peer reviewe

Migration barriers for surface diffusion on a rigid lattice : Challenges and solutions

Abstract Atomistic rigid lattice Kinetic Monte Carlo is an efficient method for simulating nano-objects and surfaces at timescales much longer than those accessible by molecular dynamics. A laborious part of constructing any Kinetic Monte Carlo model is, however, to calculate all migration barriers that are needed to give the probabilities for any atom jump event to occur in the simulations. One of the common methods of barrier calculations is Nudged Elastic Band. The number of barriers needed to fully describe simulated systems is typically between hundreds of thousands and millions. Calculations of such a large number of barriers of various processes is far from trivial. In this paper, we will discuss the challenges arising during barriers calculations on a surface and present a systematic and reliable tethering force approach to construct a rigid lattice barrier parameterization of face-centred and body-centred cubic metal lattices. We have produced several different barrier sets for Cu and for Fe that can be used for KMC simulations of processes on arbitrarily rough surfaces. The sets are published as Data in Brief articles and available for the use.Peer reviewe

Density functional theory calculation of the properties of carbon vacancy defects in silicon carbide

As a promisingmaterial for quantumtechnology, silicon carbide (SiC) has attracted great interest inmaterials science. Carbon vacancy is a dominant defect in 4H-SiC. Thus, understanding the properties of this defect is critical to its application, and the atomic and electronic structures of the defects needs to be identified. In this study, density functional theorywas used to characterize the carbon vacancy defects in hexagonal (h) and cubic (k) lattice sites. The zero-phonon line energies, hyperfine tensors, and formation energies of carbon vacancies with different charge states (2-, -, 0,+ and 2+) in different supercells (72, 128, 400 and 576 atoms)were calculated using standard Perdew-Burke-Ernzerhof and Heyd-Scuseria-Ernzerhof methods. Results show that the zero-phonon line energies of carbon vacancy defects are much lower than those of divacancy defects, indicating that the former is more likely to reach the excited state than the latter. The hyperfine tensors of VC+(h) and VC+(k) were calculated. Comparison of the calculated hyperfine tensor with the experimental results indicates the existence of carbon vacancies in SiC lattice. The calculation of formation energy shows that the most stable carbon vacancy defects in the material are VC2+(k), VC+(k), VC(k), VC-(k) and VC2-(k) as the electronic chemical potential increases.Peer reviewe