Energetics of diffusion on the (100) and (111) surfaces of Ag, Au, and Ir from first principles

Tempering of Au nanoclusters: capturing the temperature-dependent competition among structural motifs

A computational approach to determine the equilibrium structures of nanoclusters in the whole temperature range from 0 K to melting is developed. Our approach relies on Parallel Tempering Molecular Dynamics (PTMD) simulations complemented by Harmonic Superposition Approximation (HSA) calculations and global optimization searches, thus combining the accuracy of global optimization and HSA in describing the low-energy part of configuration space, together with the PTMD thorough sampling of high-energy configurations. This combined methodology is shown to be instrumental towards revealing the temperature-dependent structural motifs in Au nanoclusters of sizes 90, 147, and 201 atoms. The reported phenomenology is particularly rich, displaying a size- and temperature-dependent competition between the global energy minimum and other structural motifs. In the case of Au₉₀ and Au₁₄₇, the global minimum is also the dominant structure at finite temperatures. In contrast, the Au₂₀₁ cluster undergoes a solid-solid transformation at low temperature (<200 K). Results indicate that PTMD and HSA very well agree at intermediate temperatures, between 300 and 400 K. For higher temperatures, PTMD gives an accurate description of equilibrium, while HSA fails in describing the melting range. On the other hand, HSA is more efficient in catching low-temperature structural transitions. Finally, we describe the elusive structures close to the melting region which can present complex and defective geometries, that are otherwise difficult to characterize through experimental imaging.

The Lattice Kinetic Monte Carlo Simulation of Atomic Diffusion and Structural Transition for Gold

For the kinetic simulation of metal nanoparticles, we developed a self-consistent coordination-averaged energies for Au atoms based on energy properties of gold bulk phases. The energy barrier of the atom pairing change is proposed and holds for the microscopic reversibility principle. By applying the lattice kinetic Monte Carlo simulation on gold films, we found that the atomic diffusion of Au on the Au(111) surface undergoes a late transition state with an energy barrier of about 0.2 eV and a prefactor between 40~50 Ų/ps. This study also investigates the structural transition from spherical to faceted gold nanoparticles upon heating. The temperatures of structural transition are in agreement with the experimental melting temperatures of gold nanoparticles with diameters ranging from 2 nm to 8 nm.

Supramolecular Rotor and Translator at Work: On-Surface Movement of Single Atoms

A supramolecular nanostructure composed of four 4-acetylbiphenyl molecules and self-assembled on Au (111) was loaded with single Au adatoms and studied by scanning tunneling microscopy at low temperature. By applying voltage pulses to the supramolecular structure, the loaded Au atoms can be rotated and translated in a controlled manner. The manipulation of the gold adatoms is driven neither by mechanical interaction nor by direct electronic excitation. At the electronic resonance and driven by the tunneling current intensity, the supramolecular nanostructure performs a small amount of work of about 8 × 10(-21) J, while transporting the single Au atom from one adsorption site to the next. Using the measured average excitation time necessary to induce the movement, we determine the mechanical motive power of the device, yielding about 3 × 10(-21) W.

Multiscale Modeling of Au-Island Ripening on Au(100)

We describe a multiscale modeling hierarchy for the particular case of Au-island ripening on Au(100). Starting at the microscopic scale, density functional theory was used to investigate a limited number of self-diffusion processes on perfect and imperfect Au(100) surfaces. The obtained structural and energetic information served as basis for optimizing a reactive forcefield (here ReaxFF), which afterwards was used to address the mesoscopic scale. Reactive force field simulations were performed to investigate more diffusion possibilities at a lower computational cost but with similar accuracy. Finally, we reached the macroscale by means of kinetic Monte Carlo (kMC) simulations. The reaction rates for the reaction process database used in the kMC simulations were generated using the reactive force field. Using this strategy, we simulated nucleation, aggregation, and fluctuation processes for monoatomic high islands on Au(100) and modeled their equilibrium shape structures. Finally, by calculating the step line tension at different temperatures, we were able to make a direct comparison with available experimental data.

Roughening of gold atomic steps induced by interaction with tetrahydrofuran

Exposure of a clean gold surface to tetrahydrofuran (THF) under ambient conditions was observed to cause roughening of atomic step edges. This change was followed in situ using a scanning tunneling microscope during the exposure of a gold surface to a controlled stream of THF vapor. THF is a common solvent used in depositing molecules, self-assembled monolayers, and polymer films on surfaces, in electrochemistry, and in chemical reactions. Unlike other solvents, such as methanol, ethanol and diethyl ether, however, we found that THF itself has a profound effect on the surface morphology that needs to be taken into account when reporting on the interactions of solutes with a gold surface. At the same time, this finding may present new opportunities in catalysis or nanostructuring of surfaces.

Melting of icosahedral gold nanoclusters from molecular dynamics simulations

Molecular dynamics simulations show that gold clusters with about 600-3000 atoms crystallize into a Mackay icosahedron upon cooling from the liquid. A detailed surface analysis shows that the facets on the surface of the Mackay icosahedral gold clusters soften but do not premelt below the bulk melting temperature. This softening is found to be due to the increasing mobility of vertex and edge atoms with temperature, which leads to inter-layer and intra-layer diffusion, and a shrinkage of the average facet size, so that the average shape of the cluster is nearly spherical at melting.

Site determination and thermally assisted tunneling in homogenous nucleation

A combined low-temperature scanning tunneling microscopy and density functional theory study on the binding and diffusion of copper monomers, dimers, and trimers adsorbed on Cu(111) is presented. Whereas atoms in trimers are found in fcc sites only, monomers as well as atoms in dimers can occupy the fcc as well as the metastable hcp site. In fact the dimer fcc-hcp configuration is only 1.3 meV less favorable with respect to the fcc-fcc configuration. This enables a confined intracell dimer motion, which at temperatures below 5 K is dominated by thermally assisted tunneling.