SELF-REPAIR OF MONOLAYERS WITH VACANCY DAMAGE

Lennard-Jones monolayers are shown by molecular dynamics simulation to exhibit a self-healing behavior which involves a rapid condensation o f vacancies into dislocation dipoles. An associated collapse of the sh ear modulus similar to the Kosterlitz-Thouless dipole dissociation occ urs for high vacancy concentrations. By contrast monolayers having nea rest neighbor piecewise linear interactions are found to cavitate by a gglomeration of vacancies into clusters.