It seems very weird and unlikely to me that the system would go to the higher energy state 100% of the time, but I don’t know enough about how mechanical force is treated in molecular dynamics to properly assess the claim.
Energy = force * distance. My guess is that diamond is stiffer than the germanium triadamantane tooltip, so even if the binding energy is higher to the tooltip, the dimer is more strongly attracted to the diamond. Imagine using a rubber band to attach a strong magnet to a magnetic floor. You lower the magnet until it sticks (doing small negative work), then you can slowly pull the rubber band away until it breaks (doing large positive work) because the magnet is stronger than the band.
So it’s plausible for the tooltip to add energy to the system and yet reliably deposit the carbon dimer. No idea if this is true in practice though.
Energy = force * distance. My guess is that diamond is stiffer than the germanium triadamantane tooltip, so even if the binding energy is higher to the tooltip, the dimer is more strongly attracted to the diamond. Imagine using a rubber band to attach a strong magnet to a magnetic floor. You lower the magnet until it sticks (doing small negative work), then you can slowly pull the rubber band away until it breaks (doing large positive work) because the magnet is stronger than the band.
So it’s plausible for the tooltip to add energy to the system and yet reliably deposit the carbon dimer. No idea if this is true in practice though.