Simulated annealing of silicon atom clusters in Langevin molecular dynamics

Abstract

We have performed simulated annealing of silicon clusters with a Langevin molecular-dynamics approach. The silicon atoms interact through two- and three-body potentials and are connected to a heat bath that provides a stochastic force and a viscous friction. The simulated annealing is substantially better than any steepest-descent method, and produces low-lying energy states of the clusters that are insensitive to the initial cluster configuration or the details of the cooling schedule. Systematics of the simulated annealing process are discussed.