MOLECULAR DYNAMICS SIMULATION OF STRUCTURE STABILITY OF SILVER NANOCLUSTERS

The structures of Ag clusters with sizes n=13 to 1157 are studied by tight binding molecular dynamics simulation. It is found that the stable structures of Ag clusters follow the sequence amorphous-crystalline-amorphous-crystalline with the cluster size increasing from 13 to 1157. Furthermore, all the shells of Ag clusters are different from the structure of the corresponding bulk Ag.