Atomistic Simulation Study of Controlled Nanostructure Patterning

We investigate the surface kinetics of Pt using the extended embedded-atom method, an extension of the embedded-atom method with additional degrees of freedom to include the nonbulk data from lower-coordinated systems as well as the bulk properties. The surface energies of the clean Pt (111) and Pt (100) surfaces are found to be 0.13 eV and 0.147 eV respectively, in excellent agreement with experiment. The Pt on Pt (111) adatom diffusion barrier is found to be 0.38 eV and predicted to be strongly strain-dependent, indicating that, in the compressive domain, adatoms are unstable and the diffusion barrier is lower; the nucleation occurs in the tensile domain. In addition, the dissociation barrier from the dimer configuration is found to be 0.82 eV. Therefore, we expect that atoms, once coalesced, are unlikely to dissociate into single adatoms. This essentially tells that by changing the applied strain, we can control the patterning of nanostructures on the metal surface.