Eur. Phys. J. D 28, 219-228 (2004)
https://doi.org/10.1140/epjd/e2003-00314-3

Rearrangement collisions between gold clusters ^*

¹ Departamento de Física, Facultad de Ciencias, Universidad de Chile, Casilla 653, Santiago 1, Chile
² Facultad de Física, Universidad Católica de Chile, Casilla 306, Santiago, Chile 6904411
³ Advanced Materials Department, IPICyT, Apartado Postal 3-74 Tangamanga, 78231 San Luis Potosí, SLP México, Mexico

Corresponding author: ^a mkiwi@puc.cl

Received: 16 July 2002
Revised: 19 May 2003
Published online: 23 December 2003

Abstract

Collision processes between two gold clusters are investigated using classical molecular dynamics in combination with embedded atom (EA) potentials, after checking the reliability of the EA results by contrasting them with first principles calculations. The Au projectiles considered are both single atoms (N=1) and clusters of N=2, 12, 13 and 14 atoms. The targets contain N= 12, 13 and 14 gold atoms. The collision energy E and impact parameter b are chosen within a range such that the three regimes we are interested in studying (fusion, scattering and fragmentation) are realized. The results of the collision processes are described and analyzed in detail, and compared with previous work.