The energetics and structure of nickel clusters: Size dependence

The energetics of nickel clusters over a broad size range are explored within the context of the many-body potentials obtained via the embedded atom method. Unconstrained local minimum energy configurations are found for single crystal clusters consisting of various truncations of the cube or octahedron, with and without (110) faces, as well as some monotwinnings of these. We also examine multitwinned structures such as icosahedra and various truncations of the decahedron, such as those of Ino and Marks. These clusters range in size from 142 to over 5000 atoms. As in most such previous studies, such as those on Lennard-Jones systems, we find that icosahedral clusters are favored for the smallest cluster sizes and that Marks’ decahedra are favored for intermediate sizes (all our atomic systems larger than about 2300 atoms). Of course very large clusters will be single crystal face-centered-cubic (fcc) polyhedra: the onset of optimally stable single-crystal nickel clusters is estimated to occur at 17 000 atoms. We find, via comparisons to results obtained via atomistic calculations, that simple macroscopic expressions using accurate surface, strain, and twinning energies can usefully predict energy differences between different structures even for clusters of much smaller size than expected. These expressions can be used to assess the relative energetic merits of various structural motifs and their dependence on cluster size.