[lammps-users] Silicon surface explosion

Hi

I’m performing single crystal Silicon cutting with a diamond tool and I have noticed that in all the cases (with different depth of cuts and cutting speeds) which I have ran, the workpiece explodes SUDDENLY.

It happens when the cutting tool has crossed the workpiece and I have noticed that suddenly the amorphous structure of silicon at top layer after cutting seeps into whole workpiece and it explodes. I have attached the jpegs in attachments 00038.jpg has only the top layer amorphous, 00039.jpg indicated the whole workpiece changed to amorphous and 00040.jpg shows the explosion.

I’m using hybrid potential i.e., Tersoff for Si-Si interaction and Morse for Si-C interaction. I think that it is beacuse of phase transformation of top layer of Si after cutting the poteintial can not hold this amorphous crystal structure.

Is this the correct reason? or it is due to some other reason? Also, please suggest a way to avoid this explosion.

Thanks

00038.jpg

00039.jpg

00040.jpg