Influences of cooling rate on formation of amorphous germanene

In this work, we study thoroughly influences of cooling rate on the formation of two-dimensional (2D) germanene via molecular dynamics simulation using atomistic models composed of 104 atomic Ge atoms with the Stillinger - Weber potential. This influence is studied through the changes in the thermodynamic and structural properties of the model. We find that the relatively good quality amorphous germanene is formed at a cooling rate of 1013 K s−1 with the glass transition temperature of 1210 K. The structural properties of 2D amorphous germanene are discussed through radial distribution function, coordination number, ring, interatomic-distance, and angle distribution. •We study thoroughly influences of cooling rate on the formation of two-dimensional (2D) germanene via molecular dynamics simulation.•We find that the relatively good quality amorphous germanene is formed at a cooling rate of 1013 K s−1 with the glass transition temperature of 1210 K.•The microscopic structure of amorphous germanene is analyzed and discussed.•The differences between structural characteristics of germanene obtained at different cooling rates are compared.