Molecular Dynamics Simulation of Annealed ZnO Surfaces

TK Min and TL Yoon and TL Lim, NATIONAL PHYSICS CONFERENCE 2014 (PERFIK 2014), 1657, 070006 (2015).

DOI: 10.1063/1.4915201

The effect of thermally annealing a slab of wurtzite ZnO, terminated by two surfaces, (0001) (which is oxygen-terminated) and (000 (1) over bar) (which is Zn-terminated), is investigated via molecular dynamics simulation by using reactive force field (ReaxFF). We found that upon heating beyond a threshold temperature of similar to 700 K, surface oxygen atoms begin to sublimate from the (0001) surface. The ratio of oxygen leaving the surface at a given temperature increases as the heating temperature increases. A range of phenomena occurring at the atomic level on the (0001) surface has also been explored, such as formation of oxygen dimers on the surface and evolution of partial charge distribution in the slab during the annealing process. It was found that the partial charge distribution as a function of the depth from the surface undergoes a qualitative change when the annealing temperature is above the threshold temperature.

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