Study of Structural and Phase Transition of Nickel Metal

Abstract

Annealing study of nickel metal in the temperature range 300–1000 K has been carried out using molecular dynamics (MD) simulations. The simulation is done for models containing 104 particles Ni at both crystalline and amorphous states. We obtain the change as a function of annealing time for the potential energy of system, pair radial distribution function (PRDF), and distribution of coordination number (DCN). The calculation shows that the aging slightly reduces the potential energy of system. This result evidences that the amorphous model undergoes different quasiequilibrated states during annealing. The crystalline model undergoes the slow relaxation which reduces the energy of system and eliminates structural defects in crystal lattices.