THERMODYNAMIC BEHAVIOR OF SMALL CL-ARN-1 IONIC CLUSTERS

The thermodynamic properties of clusters containing a single Cl- ion and N - 1 argon atoms, N = 3, 5, 7, and 13, are determined using a many-body potential which fully incorporates the important contribution from the ion-induced dipoles on all particles in the system. The clusters are crystallites at low temperatures, exhibit melting transitions, and then disassociate at T = 75, 67, 61, and 45 K, for N = 3, 5, 7, and 13, respectively. The results are qualitatively similar to previous work on K+ArN-1 clusters. © 1979.