Ground-state and finite-temperature energetics and topologies of germanium microclusters

We have investigated the ground-state and finite-temperature properties of Ge microclusters (N = 2 to 14) using molecular dynamics (MD) simulation along with the method of steepest-descent quench (SDQ). The interaction potential adopted is the three-body Stillinger-Weber potential as modified by Ding and Andersen for amorphous Ge. Our results indicate that the experimentally observed greater stability of certain cluster sizes can be explained by the topology and energetics of the clusters at finite temperature rather than by the binding energies of the ground-state structures. © 1988 American Institute of Physics.