Eur. Phys. J. D 43, 15-18 (2007)
https://doi.org/10.1140/epjd/e2007-00059-y

Global structure optimization study on Au_2-20

Physical and Theoretical Chemistry, University of Saarland, 66123 Saarbrücken, Germany

Corresponding authors: ^a y.dong@mx.uni-saarland.de - ^b m.springborg@mx.uni-saarland.de

Received: 23 July 2006
Revised: 2 October 2006
Published online: 24 May 2007

Abstract

The geometries and electronic properties of the most stable small Au_n clusters with n=2 to 20 are presented. An intensive search for low-energy minima of Au_n clusters was carried through using a density-functional tight-binding method combined with genetic algorithms for an unbiased global structure optimization. The structural and energetic properties of the small gold clusters are compared with those of planar Au_n clusters with n=5 to 15.