Impact energy dependence of Al13 cluster deposition on Ni(0 0 1) surface

In this paper, the influence of the impact energy on the initial fabrication of thin films formed by low energy cluster deposition was investigated by molecular dynamics simulation of Al13 clusters depositing on Ni(0 0 1) substrate. In the case of soft-landing, (0.01 eV/atom), clusters are rearranged from Ih symmetry into fcc-like clusters on the surface. Then they aggregate each other, which result in thin film growing in 3D island mode. While, growth will be in layer-by-layer mode at the impact energy of a few electron volt due to the transient lateral spread of cluster atoms induced by dense collision cascade. This effect has been traced to collision cascade inside the cluster, which is enhanced by collision with a hard Ni substrate.