Solid-liquid phase coexistence and structural transitions in palladium clusters

Abstract

We use molecular dynamics with an embedded atom potential to study the behavior of palladium nanoclusters near the melting point in the microcanonical ensemble. We see transitions from both fcc and decahedral ground state structures to icosahedral structures prior to melting over a range of cluster sizes. In all cases this transition occurs during solid-liquid phase coexistence and the mechanism for the transition appears to be fluctuations in the molten fraction of the cluster and subsequent recrystallization into the icosahedral structure.

8 pages, 6 figures

References in corpus (7)

• Entropic effects on the Size Evolution of Cluster Structure
• Melting a copper cluster: Critical droplet theory
• Molecular dynamics simulations of lead clusters
• Melting of aluminium clusters
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Cited by in corpus (4)

• Superheating and solid-liquid phase coexistence in nanoparticles with non-melting surfaces
• Size and shape-dependent melting mechanism of Pd nanoparticles
• Thermal instability of decahedral structures in platinum nanoparticles
• Determining phase transition using potential energy distribution and surface energy of Pd nanoparticles