Molecular dynamics simulation of nanoindentaiton on ion-induced damage of silicon surface

Nanoindentation on ion-induced damage of silicon surface was performed using molecular dynamics. The simulation revealed interaction between a ion-induced damage substrate and a indentation. Two types of silicon substrates are used. One is silicon crystal, and another is amorphous silicon which damaged by argon ion bombardment. The initial velocity of the ion bombardment was 3.807x105 m/sec at 30 keV. The computation volume (8.00 nm x 8.00 nm x 17.24 nm) consisted of 57600 Si atoms with Si (100) surface. Each silicon substrate was pressed by the indentation and the force acting on the indentation head were investigated. The force of the ion-induced substrate is smaller than that of the crystalline substrate. Consequently, it turned out that the internal structure of silicon with ion-induced damage can be examined by the force distribution of the indentation.