Growth Pattern of Silicon Clusters

Abstract

Tight-binding molecular dynamics simulated annealing technique is employed to search for the ground state geometries of silicon clusters containing 11-17 atoms. These studies revealed that layer formation is the dominant growth pattern in all these clusters. Fullerene-like precursor structures consisting of fused pentagon rings are also observed. The atoms in all these clusters exhibit pronounced preference for residing on the surface.

Modern Physics Letters B in press, 9 pages + 2 figures. PostScript version available at ftp://ramanujan.chem.nyu.edu/pub/mplb1.ps