Professor Frederick H. Streitz
Department of Physics, Auburn University
4 PM, Thursday, Apr. 2, 1998
Room 101, Olin Physical Laboratory
Oxidation at the aluminum surface is a process of considerable importance, as the stable oxide layer which forms is chemically passive and serves to protect the metal from further attack. One might think that with the wealth of experimental and theoretical techniques currently at the disposal of surface scientists, a complete description of this process would be available. This is not the case, however, as the oxidation of even a `simple' metal (such as aluminum) has proven to be very complex. In particular, details surrounding the initial uptake of oxygen on the aluminum surface prior to and including the onset of oxidation are lacking. In order to gain some insight into this process, I am performing molecular dynamics simulations of atomic oxygen on the aluminum surface, using the recently developed ES+ method to model the interaction between atomic species. After an introduction to molecular dynamics and interaction potentials, I will describe some of the results of this ongoing research effort. Included will be a discussion of oxygen migration and the selection of initial nucleation sites on the aluminum surface, and the presentation of several video animation sequences.