Potential-energy functions for Cu, Ag and Au solids and their application to clusters of these elements

Empirical potential functions comprising two- and three-body terms have been derived for Cu, Ag and Au by fitting parameters to the phonon frequencies, elastic constants, bulk cohesive energies, vacancy formation energies and lattice distances of the f.c.c. solids. The potentials predict compact structures for small clusters of the elements with more metastable structures for Ag than for Cu and Au.