Simulating temperature effects in the growth of tetrahedral amorphous carbon: The importance of infrequent events

This thin-film deposition study of tetrahedral amorphous carbon shows that including infrequent processes on the millisecond scale substantially improves the accuracy of molecular dynamics simulations. Elevated temperature between energetic impacts is used to activate processes which are typically ignored. In agreement with experiment, the simulations show an abrupt transition in which diamondlike carbon transforms into vertically oriented graphitic sheets. The simulations also highlight the importance of infrequent events in combination with energetic impact. In the absence of the latter, the transition temperature is significantly higher, in good correlation with experiment. (c) 2006 American Institute of Physics.