2003/05/31 by Shaun C. Hendy, S. A. Brown, Simon A. Brown +2 · 1 citation
Earth and Planetary Sciences · Engineering · Materials Science · Physics and Astronomy · #Ion-surface interactions and analysis #Material Dynamics and Properties #cond-mat #nanoparticles nucleation surface interactions
paper · pdf · doi:10.1103/physrevb.68.241403
published as Phys. Rev. B 68, 241403(R) (2003) · 5 figures
openalex publication_date 2003/12/18 · arxiv created 2004/01/08 · arxiv updated 2009/11/30 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
We study the coalescence of nanoscale metal clusters in an inert-gas atmosphere using constant-energy molecular dynamics. The coalescence proceeds via atomic diffusion with the release of surface energy raising the temperature. If the temperature exceeds the melting point of the coalesced cluster, a molten droplet forms. If the temperature falls between the melting point of the larger cluster and those of the smaller clusters, a metastable molten droplet forms and freezes.