A molecular dynamics simulation of (1 1 0) surface premelting in Ni

Molecular dynamics simulations were used to examine the premelting behavior of the (1 1 0) surface for an embedded atom method model of pure nickel. The distributions of liquid layer widths were obtained at five temperatures ranging from 2 to 30 K below the melting point. The results were used to construct the structural contribution to the disjoining potential, which describes the short-ranged contribution to the thermodynamic driving force for surface premelting.