A COMPARATIVE STUDY OF EMPIRICAL POTENTIAL ENERGY FUNCTIONS: APPLICATIONS TO SILICON MICROCLUSTERS

A comparative study has been performed for silicon microclusters, Si 3 and Si 4, considering fifteen different empirical potential energy functions. It has been found that only two of the empirical potential energy functions give linear structure more stable for Si 3, the remaining potential functions give triangular structure as more stable. In the case of Si 4 microclusters eight potential functions give open tetrahedral structure as more stable, two functions give perfect tetrahedral as more stable, three functions give square structure as more stable, and two functions give linear structure as more stable.