The classical molecular dynamics simulation of graphene on Ru(0001) using a fitted Tersoff interface potential

Abstract

The accurate molecular dynamics simulation of weakly bound adhesive complexes, such as supported graphene, is challenging due to the lack of an adequate interface potential. Instead of the widely used Lennard-Jones potential for weak and long-range interactions we use a newly parameterized Tersoff-potential for graphene/Ru(0001) system. The new interfacial force field provides adequate moir$\acute{e}$ superstructures in accordance with scanning tunnelling microscopy images and with DFT results. In particular, the corrugation of $\xi \approx 1.0 \pm 0.2$ $\hbox{\AA}$ is found which is somewhat smaller than found by DFT approaches ($\xi \approx 1.2$ $\hbox{\AA}$) and is close to STM measurements ($\xi \approx 0.8 \pm 0.3$ $\hbox{\AA}$).The new potential could open the way towards large scale simulations of supported graphene with adequate moir$\acute{e}$ supercells in many fields of graphene research. Moreover, the new interface potential might provide a new strategy in general for getting accurate interaction potentials for weakly bound adhesion in large scale systems in which atomic dynamics is inaccessible yet by accurate DFT calculations.