Microscopic mechanisms of the growth of metastable silver icosahedra
- 26 March 2001
- journal article
- research article
- Published by American Physical Society (APS) in Physical Review B
- Vol. 63 (15), 155408
- https://doi.org/10.1103/physrevb.63.155408
Abstract
The growth of free silver nanoclusters is investigated by molecular-dynamics simulations up to sizes close to atoms on realistic time scales, and in a temperature range from to 650 K. At low and intermediate temperatures, we grow mainly noncrystalline structures, as icosahedra and decahedra. In particular, at we obtain that perfectly ordered metastable icosahedra are very likely grown: either by a shell-by-shell mode on a small-size stable icosahedron, or by a complete structural transformation from a decahedron to a metastable icosahedron. The latter mechanism can explain why large silver icosahedra are more abundant than large decahedra in experiments. At high temperatures, crystalline fcc clusters are very frequently grown.
Keywords
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