AN EMPIRICAL MANY-BODY POTENTIAL-ENERGY FUNCTION FOR ALUMINUM - APPLICATION TO SOLID-PHASES AND MICROCLUSTERS

An empirical two-plus-three-body potential, developed by Murrell and co-workers [J. N. Murrell and R. A. Rodriguez-Ruiz, Mol. Phys. 71, 823 (1990)], is applied to the study of fcc aluminum. The parameters in the potential are derived by fitting the experimental phonon-dispersion curves and elastic constants. Calculations, using this potential, on a number of one-, two- and three-dimensional extended systems give results which are in quantitative agreement with recent ab initio calculations [I. J. Robertson, M. C. Payne, and V. Heine, Europhys. Lett. 15, 301 (1991)]. Calculations on small- and medium-sized aluminum clusters give cluster geometries and growth patterns which agree qualitatively with previous ab initio molecular-orbital and density-functional studies.