Am. Mazzone, MOLECULAR-DYNAMICS CALCULATIONS OF MELTING AND FRAGMENTATION OF AR AND AG CLUSTERS, Philosophical magazine letters, 78(2), 1998, pp. 145-152
Melting and fragmentation, due to collisional dissociation, of Ar and
Ag clusters containing from 30 to 500 atoms have been studied with an
isothermal molecular dynamics simulation method using classical forces
. In the case of melting it has been found for both elements that a te
mperature increase leads to a continuous transition from a softening o
f the bonds to fragmentation. This behaviour is atypical and an approx
imate scaling of the temperature exists which converts the melting beh
aviour from that of Ar to that of Ag. On the contrary, in the case of
collisional dissociation a perceptible fragmentation yield is observed
in Ar whereas in Ag the input energy leads only to an increase of the
translational energy and to rigid motions.