Published February 11, 2018 | Version v1
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Adatom-Induced Local Melting

  • 1. Theory and Simulations of Materials (THEOS), and National Centre for Computational Design and Discovery of Novel Materials (MARVEL) Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne, 1015 Lausanne, Switzerland
  • 2. Department of Physics, King's College London, London, UK

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Description

We introduce and discuss the phenomenon of adatom-induced surface local melting, using extensive first-principles molecular dynamics simulations of Al(100) taken as a paradigmatic case of a non-premelting surface that nevertheless displays facile adatom diffusion with single and multiple exchange pathways. Here, a single adatom deposited on the surface is sufficient to nucleate a localized and diffusing liquid-like region that remains confined to the surface layer, but with an area that increases with temperature; in the absence of the adatom, the surface instead remains crystalline until reaching the bulk melting temperature.

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