Premelting and postmelting in clusters

Caloric curves for sodium clusters with N=139 and 147 atoms show a fine structure near the solid-to-liquid transition. Neither of the two sizes exhibit surface melting. For N=139, diffusion of the surface vacancies is observed, which is not possible in the closed-shell N=147 cluster. A few kelvin ab...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Physical review letters 2009-01, Vol.102 (4), p.043401-043401, Article 043401
Main Authors: Hock, Christian, Bartels, Christof, Strassburg, Samuel, Schmidt, Martin, Haberland, Hellmut, von Issendorff, Bernd, Aguado, Andrés
Format: Article
Language:English
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Summary:Caloric curves for sodium clusters with N=139 and 147 atoms show a fine structure near the solid-to-liquid transition. Neither of the two sizes exhibit surface melting. For N=139, diffusion of the surface vacancies is observed, which is not possible in the closed-shell N=147 cluster. A few kelvin above the peak in the heat capacity, N=139 is completely liquid. This is not the case for N=147. Here the inner 13 atoms remain nearly fixed up to several tens of kelvin above the melting temperature of the outer two layers. A simple physical reason is suggested for this unexpected behavior.
ISSN:0031-9007
1079-7114
DOI:10.1103/PhysRevLett.102.043401