Molecular Dynamics Simulation of Cluster-Ion Impacts

Bombardment with beams of heavy molecular ions (cluster ions) has shown initial promise in a wide range of applications. Since little intuition has been developed about how the results are affected by the relevant experimental variables, e.g., cluster type, mass, and energy, these attempts at establishing feasibility may be quite far from being optimal in the choices of these parameters. I propose here that simulations based on molecular dynamics techniques may play a very important role in the efficient design and accurate interpretation of the next generation of such experiments. In addition to the impact this will have on applications in materials science, these calculations and the relevant experiments that follow may be important in determining the lifetimes of small grains in the interstellar medium.