We employ classical molecular dynamics simulations to investigate the melting behaviour of a decahedral Pd(887) cluster on a single layer of graphite (graphene). The interaction between Pd atoms is modelled with an embedded-atom potential, while the adhesion of Pd atoms to the substrate is approximated with a Lennard-Jones potential. We find that the decahedral structure persists at temperatures close to the melting point, but that just below the melting transition, the cluster accommodates to the substrate by means of complete melting and then recrystallization into an fcc structure. These structural changes are in qualitative agreement with recently proposed models, and they verify the existence of an energy barrier preventing softly deposited clusters from 'wetting' the substrate at temperatures below the melting point.
Liquid Lennard-Jones clusters of 14 different sizes from N=55-923 atoms were cooled down in Monte Carlo simulations (40 runs for each size) to the reduced temperature T* = 0.05 . Structural analysis and visualization were applied for classification of the internal structure of all 560 final clusters. Small clusters revealed the presence of the multishell icosahedra or regular polyicosahedra. In larger clusters, beginning from N=309 , the noncrystalline atom ordering is often replaced by the formation of defected crystalline clusters in the form of layered face-centered cubic-hexagonal close-packed (fcc-hcp) clusters or defected layered clusters with some additional nonparallel hcp overlayers. The presence of regular polyicosahedral clusters, relatively numerous even at the largest analyzed sizes, is attributed to kinetic effects in structure formation.
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