MOLECULAR-DYNAMICS STUDY OF THE STRUCTURES, BINDING-ENERGIES, AND MELTING OF CLUSTERS OF FCC TRANSITION AND NOBLE-METALS USING THE VOTER AND CHEN VERSION OF THE EMBEDDED-ATOM MODEL

Using the Voter and Chen version of the embedded-atom model, we have c arried out molecular-dynamics simulations to study the structures and melting of Ni, Pd, Pt, Cu, Ag, and Au clusters in the size range N = 2 -23. The model predicts that all these clusters have structures based on icosahedral packing and similar thermodynamic behavior. Salient res ults are that all the 13-atom clusters have high melting temperatures, and that a premelting phenomenon occurs in the 14-atom and 20-atom cl usters, which have a single atom outside a very stable structural core . Specific studies for Ni demonstrate that the premelting phenomenon a lso occurs in Ni15, Ni16, and Ni17, which have, respectively, two, thr ee, and four atoms outside the Ni13 core.