Study of nanoscratching process of GaAs using molecular dynamics

In this paper, molecular dynamics method was employed to investigate the nanoscratching process of gallium arsenide (GaAs) in order to gain insights into the material deformation and removal mechanisms in chemical mechanical polishing of GaAs. By analyzing the distribution of hydrostatic pressure and coordination number of GaAs atoms, it was found that phase transformation and amorphization were the dominant deformation mechanisms of GaAs in the scratching process. Furthermore, anisotropic effect in nanoscratching of GaAs was observed. The diverse deformation behaviors of GaAs with different crystal orientations were due to differences in the atomic structure of GaAs. The scratching resistance of GaAs(001) surface was the biggest, while the friction coefficient of GaAs(111) surface was the smallest. These findings shed light on the mechanical wear mechanism in chemical mechanical polishing of GaAs.