Elastic Field of a Nano Disk Shape Defect in an fcc Thin Film

Abstract

In this paper, we develop a theory to study the nano defects of various geometries within thin films. The considered thin films have faced centered cubic (fcc) structure. The eigenstrain method is combined with the long-range Sutton-Chen (SC) inter-atomic potential function which is appropriate for fcc crystals. The disturbance caused by a defect in a thin film is determined from the equilibrium equation using the discrete Fourier transformation. The disturbed field is also determined using three dimensional (3D) molecular dynamics (MD) simulations in which the constant NVT ensemble is applied to the atomic system. For illustration, the problem of nano disk shape defect in thin film is studied by both the proposed theory and MD simulation. To compare the result of the present theory with that of continuum theory of elasticity, the problem of prismatic dislocation loop in an infinite domain is also considered.