Evaporation of Lennard-Jones clusters

Extensive molecular dynamics simulations have been done to study the evaporation of a 13-atom Lennard-Jones cluster. The survival probability and the evaporative lifetime are calculated as a function of the cluster total energy from a classical trajectory analysis. The results are interpreted in terms of the RRK theory of unimolecular dissociation. The calculation of the binding energy of the evaporated species from the evaporation rate and the average kinetic energy release is discussed.