Stacking faults in close-packed clusters

Ground state geometries of small hard sphere clusters were studied using two different type of contact interaction, a pair-potential and a many-atom interaction. Monte Carlo method in an FCC lattice with all possible (111) stacking faults was used to obtain the minimum energy geometries for clusters up to 59 atoms. Due to the surface energy, FCC packing is generally favoured as opposite to the HCP structure. However, in most cluster sizes the ground state obtained with the many-atom interaction has one or more stacking faults. The most symmetric geometry is usually not the ground state. Clusters with 59 and 100 atoms were studied due the possibility of a high symmetry cluster with stacking faults in all four directions. The size dependence of the total energy has similarities with that of the average moment of inertia. Received 6 February 2002 / Received in final form 11 April 2002 Published online 19 July 2002