Metastable states of small rare gas crystallites

Abstract

Metastable states of rare gas crystallites containing N atoms are investigated for N=5,6,7, and 8. In particular, the stability, structures, structural transformation, and binding energy versus temperature are determined using a Monte Carlo method. The square pyramid isomer for N=5 is found to be unstable at any finite temperature. The other metastable isomers are all found to make spontaneous transitions to the ground state if the temperature is greater than about one half that of meltings. Comparisons with previous work are also made.