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Surface thermal stability of nickel clusters
Author(s) -
Chen Xiaoshuang,
Zhao Jijun,
Sun Qiang,
Liu Fengqi,
Wang Guanghou,
Shen Xue Chu
Publication year - 1996
Publication title -
physica status solidi (b)
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.51
H-Index - 109
eISSN - 1521-3951
pISSN - 0370-1972
DOI - 10.1002/pssb.2221930210
Subject(s) - cluster (spacecraft) , materials science , thermodynamics , nickel , atom (system on chip) , embedded atom model , monte carlo method , melting point , surface (topology) , thermal stability , melting temperature , surface energy , thermal , chemical physics , molecular dynamics , chemistry , computational chemistry , metallurgy , physics , composite material , statistics , mathematics , geometry , organic chemistry , computer science , embedded system , programming language
Overall and surface melting of Ni N clusters have been studied using Monte Carlo simulation and effective interaction model potential. Physical quantities such as internal energy per atom, specific heat, and bond length fluctuations are calculated as a function of temperature to illustrate overall and surface thermal softening of these clusters. It is found that the surface melting temperature is lower than the overall melting temperature for a Ni cluster of certain size. The results show that the surface and core atoms play different roles in the melting process. The recent experimental observations about metal cluster melting might be explained by using surface melting arising from the surface atom disorder first appearing due to an increase of temperature.