Title
Ab initio density-functional studies of 13-atom Cu and Ag clusters
Document Type
Conference Proceeding
Publication Date
8-13-2019
Abstract
© 2019 Published under licence by IOP Publishing Ltd. The putative ground-state structures of 13-atom Cu and Ag clusters have been studied using ab initio molecular-dynamics (AIMD) based on density-functional theory (DFT). An ensemble of low-energy configurations, collected along the AIMD trajectory and optimized to nearest local minimum-energy configurations, were studied. An analysis of the results suggests the existence of low-symmetric bilayer structures as strong candidates for the putative ground-state structure of Cu13 and Ag13 clusters. These bilayer structures are markedly different from a buckled bi-planar (BBP) configuration and energetically favorable, by about 0.4-0.5 eV, than the latter proposed earlier by others. Our study reveals that the structure of the resulting putative global-minimum configuration is essentially independent of the nature of basis functions (i.e., plane waves vs. pseudoatomic orbitals) employed in the calculations, for a given exchange-correlation functional. The structural configurations obtained from plane-wave-based DFT calculations show a noticeably tighter or dense first-shell of Cu and Ag atoms. A comparison of our results with recent full-potential DFT simulations is presented.
Recommended Citation
Limbu, Dil K.; Madueke, Michael U.; Atta-Fynn, Raymond; Drabold, David A.; and Biswas, Parthapratim, "Ab initio density-functional studies of 13-atom Cu and Ag clusters" (2019). Physics & Astronomy Open Access Publications. 21.
https://ohioopen.library.ohio.edu/physics-astronomy-oapub/21