Structural Properties of Amorphous Carbon Films by Molecular Dynamics Simulation

Seung-Hyeob Lee, Cheol-Seung Lee, Seung-Cheol Lee, Kyu-Hwan Lee, Kwang-Ryeol Lee
 

The formation of amorphous carbon thin film was calculated by molecular dynamics simulation using Tersoff potential for carbon-carbon interaction. Quantitative analyses such as coordination number, atomic density, and pair correlation function was adapted to investigate the relationship between the incident energies and the structural properties. The structural properties of the amorphous carbon film made by the simulations were compared with those of the film deposited by filtered cathodic arc (FCA) process. The structural properties of the calculated film have the maximum points at the condition of incident energy of deposition atoms between 50 and 75 eV. We also found the existence of the meta-stable sites that are located at distance 2.1 Å in pair correlation function. When depositing carbon atoms having 50 to 70 eV of incident kinetic energy, the atoms could penetrate into the thin film and enhance the sp³ bonding of the thin films followed by the increase of thin film density. The residual stress was increased by the increase of the sp³ bonding and the density of the film.