Molecular dynamics study of two dimensional and adsorbed microclusters

Abstract

Two dimensional and adsorbed microclusters of six, seven, eight, and nineteen rare gas atoms are studied by the molecular dynamics method. The behavior of all these clusters as a function of temperature presents two distinct regions: a low temperature regime typical of the vibrations in a solid and a high temperature or liquid one in which the clusters remain condensed but the particles move in very different ways, depending on the number of atoms and the shape of the cluster. Systems having close shells of neighbors of a central atom (those of seven and nineteen atoms) also show a transition region and at higher temperatures other properties typical of the liquid state. The effect of a weak interaction with a surface becomes important at high temperatures where the clusters evolve to three dimensions as some of the atoms move away from the surface.