Simulation of the formation of vacancies upon scanning of Cu(100) surface

The main mechanisms of the formation of vacancies in the first layer of Cu(100) surface have been investigated by the molecular dynamics method. It has been shown that the interaction of the tip of a scanning tunneling microscope with the surface can increase the intensity of the formation of surface vacancies by a factor of 10³−10⁵. On the basis of the reported investigations, an effective method has been proposed for controlling the vacancy concentration in the first layer of Cu(100) surface, which does not imply a change in the temperature of the system.